Let's Try It Again - Cirque of the Towers

[MonikaC]

I went back up to the Wind Rivers since my last trip was so short. Jim Fox had shown me a photo to ask if I knew where it was, so I decided that must be a sign for where I should go. Since it's about an 8 hour drive and 9+ miles in, I decided to walk in a few miles (ended up being @2.7) the evening that I got there and shorten the next day's walk. As I assembled my stove to make dinner, the fuel canister felt suspiciously light. It had leaked (something I'd never had happen before) and the next morning, there was not enough left to boil water. My choices were few: have cold hydrated food or walk back out, get my other canister and walk back in. The advantage to the latter was that I could clean up the wads of toilet paper the previous inhabitants of the camp site had left. I was not prepared to clean up their feces that were running down the side of the boulder that I had unwittingly designated as my "kitchen" or the ones under rocks, but not buried. So my dog & I walked back out, re-supplied & walked back to camp, packed up and walked the rest of the way in to the Cirque of the Towers. I camped just below the pass as the lake (Lonesome Lake) had been found to have 378x the acceptable level of E. coli from human feces in it. No, I didn't miss a decimal point. Since I didn't remember exactly where the waterfall was, I took the next day "off" to scout it and moved my camp down closer as there are a myriad of unofficial trails that made it very difficult to find my way back even in daylight. Sky Safari showed the MW to be south, maybe a bit SSW. When I went back close to dark, it was actually pretty much straight west, so the places I had scouted to shoot from weren't going to work. The area at the base of the waterfall is the creek running out from it and willows covering boulders. Not wanting to step off a boulder into a deep hole or water in the dark, I made do with what I could actually see.

I had a 22mm equivalent f/4 lens, so stitched 2 shots together so I could get all of the waterfall & more of the MW. Because it was just f/4, I had to do a much longer exposure than I usually like to do (I prefer my stars to be round rather than oblate). C&C very welcome as I just got in last night after the 9 mile hike out & 8 hour drive back and my eyes won't be working right for probably a week

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A subtler version from a single exposure.

 

[AlanLichty]

A very unusual MW shot - it almost looks like an erupting volcano erupting except for the glacial ice and waterfall. As for the h. sap occupational debris that's almost TMI.

 

[MonikaC]

I think I included the excremental part as a public service announcement. The camp host said that that is now the "new normal" -- a very sad state of affairs. Some "influencer" needs to make a TikTok or YouTube video about being a good steward for the outdoors.

 

[AlanLichty]

When I was at Reflection Lakes on Thursday morning taking the shot I posted today there was a family with 2 boys and a girl who decided all the ropes along the trails keeping people from trampling everything in sight didn't apply to them as the father set a fine example by wandering off the trails and then holding up the ropes so the kids could go out and run around on the shoreline screaming at the top of their lungs. Exemplary examples of being Good Stewards.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Monika, I am glad that I could be a small source of help as to where you would go next.

It used to be okay to dig a hole to use as a bathroom back in the day. That is frowned upon now, but to just go to the bathroom and leave it there, not even in a hole? I hate to say it, but that's a really sad description of human beings in general it seems now a days. If I recall, there are signs at the trailheads talking about how to go to the bathroom and how to deal with it when you are done. A lot of trailheads even have small plastic bags you can use that are right there at the TH.

But even without instructions, you would think common sense would tell you others would be there in the future, and they would choose to be respectful to the next guests... it's really disgusting.

Enough of that.

I must be the last person left who backpacks with cold food and drink. Everyone I know has a Jetboil, or such and they will make hot coffee or tea in the morning and have hot food. 40 years ago I did that, but maybe it was because of my time in the army, I got used to cold food.... But knowing you had prepared food that requires hot water to taste good, I think you made a good choice in going back.

If you have time, maybe you can mark the spot of the waterfall on AllTrails or on Google maps? I would like to look at it and contemplate. I would sure like to get there, but not sure if I will have time. The 3rd week of Oct the MW is still viable for this vertical type of shot. Though by then it's going to be colder back up in there then I would like. So it's probably going to have to be a trip for next year.

You did good with an f4 lens, you didn't say what your shutter speed was, but overall the stars look pretty good. Just a little movement at the top, but nothing I would really complain about. I thought you had a faster and wider lens? Did you not want to add the extra weight? Most lenses at f4 just really seem to turn the night sky into mush. But I think you did a really great job. And like Alan says, it has the feel of a volcano erupting.

 

[MonikaC]

When I was at Reflection Lakes on Thursday morning taking the shot I posted today there was a family with 2 boys and a girl who decided all the ropes along the trails keeping people from trampling everything in sight didn't apply to them as the father set a fine example by wandering off the trails and then holding up the ropes so the kids could go out and run around on the shoreline screaming at the top of their lungs. Exemplary examples of being Good Stewards.

Ohhhhh.........Kind of too bad it wasn't at Yellowstone at the thermal areas. I didn't really say that, did I?

 

[AlanLichty]

Ohhhhh.........Kind of too bad it wasn't at Yellowstone at the thermal areas. I didn't really say that, did I?

Its good to have dreams

 

[MonikaC]

Hey Monika, I am glad that I could be a small source of help as to where you would go next.

It used to be okay to dig a hole to use as a bathroom back in the day. That is frowned upon now, but to just go to the bathroom and leave it there, not even in a hole? I hate to say it, but that's a really sad description of human beings in general it seems now a days. If I recall, there are signs at the trailheads talking about how to go to the bathroom and how to deal with it when you are done. A lot of trailheads even have small plastic bags you can use that are right there at the TH.

But even without instructions, you would think common sense would tell you others would be there in the future, and they would choose to be respectful to the next guests... it's really disgusting.

Enough of that.

I must be the last person left who backpacks with cold food and drink. Everyone I know has a Jetboil, or such and they will make hot coffee or tea in the morning and have hot food. 40 years ago I did that, but maybe it was because of my time in the army, I got used to cold food.... But knowing you had prepared food that requires hot water to taste good, I think you made a good choice in going back.

If you have time, maybe you can mark the spot of the waterfall on AllTrails or on Google maps? I would like to look at it and contemplate. I would sure like to get there, but not sure if I will have time. The 3rd week of Oct the MW is still viable for this vertical type of shot. Though by then it's going to be colder back up in there then I would like. So it's probably going to have to be a trip for next year.

You did good with an f4 lens, you didn't say what your shutter speed was, but overall the stars look pretty good. Just a little movement at the top, but nothing I would really complain about. I thought you had a faster and wider lens? Did you not want to add the extra weight? Most lenses at f4 just really seem to turn the night sky into mush. But I think you did a really great job. And like Alan says, it has the feel of a volcano erupting.

Most of the thru hikers (CDT Canada-Mexico or vice versa, Appalachian or Pacific Crest Trails, etc cold hydrate. It's a thing. And they sleep in hammocks, maybe carry a bivi sack at most. 15L packs - smaller than most of us use to carry our camera gear (except those who wear it on their hip belts)

October you could have a lot of snow. The day before I went in, there was a foot of snow on the next pass to the north. Many stories of people hiking in & waking up to 1 1/2" of snow in October. The 1st time I went up there with my soon-t--be husband, the skies got darker & darker the farther north we drove from CO. We stopped at the gas station at the turn-off to the dirt roads that lead some 20+ miles to the trailhead to inquire about conditions. "6" of snow". "RV stuck sideways in the road" "All the granolas are coming out of the hills" (that last one was my favorite). It's also hunting season. I'd thought that rifle season didn't start until October 1 (it's archery season before that), but it started Sept 15. You have to find maps of the hunting areas & cross check it with the fish & game site with schedules. There were a number of guys in camo with rifles hiking around there. Some gave some of their game meat to the camp host (a friend of mine from some 40 years ago)

I would have had to bring in my Canon 1Dx mkII which is 3.4# & Zeiss 15 mm lens which is almost 2#. I think it's much better for night photography as the infinity stop is really good, so there's no guessing. On this camera, even shining my headlamp at cost objects to focus, I can't see anything -- just digital static. I accidentally must have hit the focus ring as I changed positions, so had to spin the dial & pray. This exposure was 32 seconds. I generally like 13s.

I'll send you the coordinates for the waterfall (I marked it on Gaia)