That Waterfall in the Cirque of the Towers

[MonikaC]

My dog & I returned to the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range of WY last week to try for another shot of the aforementioned waterfall with Milky Way behind it. It's an 8 hour drive and I'm ready to stretch my legs after that, so we walked in 5 1/2 or 6 miles to Big Sandy Lake for our first night. It rained pretty hard for an hour the next morning and was completely overcast & cloudy all that day, which is great for hiking (especially uphill with a big pack), but not so auspicious for night photography. Talking with someone who was hiking out, I learned that it had rained hard for 3 hours there the previous evening, which pretty much emptied the Cirque of climbers. I did see 1 fellow, got whiffs of a campfire and heard voices just before I headed out to shoot, but pretty much had the place to myself. When I got to the waterfall, it was barely a dribble (when I went in late June, it was raging, but I couldn't get across the creek to get the angle I wanted, thus the return trip), but after several hours, it picked up. The forecast had been vacillating between clear & dry to thunderstorms and cloudy at night, so I brought extra food in case I needed to camp out there for an extra night or 2. Fortunately, the sky started clearing up around 7pm. The willows had leafed out, obscuring the view of the waterfall from downstream and all but 2 places close to the base of the waterfall. After dithering around for long enough to allow the MW to align with the waterfall, I got my shots & went back to camp to try to get some sleep before walking out the next day.

This is 2 shots, one for the bottom 2/3 and the other for the top of the Galactic Center since I couldn't shoot from further downstream to get it all in 1 frame. I did some light painting on the waterfall & ledge with my headlamp on its lowest setting, then toned it down in post.

 

[AlanLichty]

Neat result with the MW seeming to erupt out of the mountain above the falls.

 

[JimFox]

Super cool Monika. I am glad you got back out there. I sure wish the weather was better in July and I could have gotten there too. It's so high on my list!!

Very nice work here, and you recovered from the headlamp pretty well on the ground layer. It's still a tad bright where that large rock is, I would tone that down more, but otherwise I think you did a great job with this. I am glad you got some rain to get some water flowing.

A tip for you. Next time, don't use the headlamp, instead use your iphone. Turn it on to the calendar or such, or if you have a bright enough background scene, then use it to light up an area. It's a much softer light then a headlamp even on the lowest setting. Just move the iphone around so you don't get any sharp edges of light/dark.

The other option is to use a twilight shot during blue hour, or early morning shot. The light is much more even and will blend in the best.

 

[MonikaC]

Super cool Monika. I am glad you got back out there. I sure wish the weather was better in July and I could have gotten there too. It's so high on my list!!

Very nice work here, and you recovered from the headlamp pretty well on the ground layer. It's still a tad bright where that large rock is, I would tone that down more, but otherwise I think you did a great job with this. I am glad you got some rain to get some water flowing.

A tip for you. Next time, don't use the headlamp, instead use your iphone. Turn it on to the calendar or such, or if you have a bright enough background scene, then use it to light up an area. It's a much softer light then a headlamp even on the lowest setting. Just move the iphone around so you don't get any sharp edges of light/dark.

The other option is to use a twilight shot during blue hour, or early morning shot. The light is much more even and will blend in the best.

Thanks, Jim. Good tips. I do move the headlamp around. And usually don't do any light painting, anyway. On this trip, at twilight/blue hour & "sunrise" it was all cloudy or raining (t-storms).
This version came out much hotter than on my monitor or printer, by probably 25-30%. Compression? edit: looking at it on my calibrated monitor it looks right. I'll tone down the boulder.

If you go in July some year, you'll probably get climbers/campers headlamps washing across it (that's what happened to me last year, and that was September! Someone had a super bright (xenon, probably) headlamp & kept looking that direction.

 

[Michael Liskay]

Wow that is a one of a kind shot! Your dedication is amazing and was rewarded big time. I recall a circle hike in the Wind River range about 50 years ago. I was mainly into climbing and fishing at that time. Cut the cirque of the towers was the highlight of our long trip. Thanks for the eliciting that memory!

 

[MonikaC]

Wow that is a one of a kind shot! Your dedication is amazing and was rewarded big time. I recall a circle hike in the Wind River range about 50 years ago. I was mainly into climbing and fishing at that time. Cut the cirque of the towers was the highlight of our long trip. Thanks for the eliciting that memory!

There's been an Instagrammed-to-death loop hike for a handful of years now: Texas and Jackass passes. I've done both passes, but not as a loop hike. 50 years ago, packs were much heavier! I go the climbers route instead of Jackass. The 1st road trip with my then husband-to-be was supposed to be the Winds, some 39 years ago, but as we got further & further north, the skies got darker & darker. We pulled off at the Boulder, WY store to find out about conditions. Locals said 6" snow on the road, an RV stuck sideways and "all the granolas are coming out of the hills!" We went climbing in SE Utah instead.

 

[Michael13]

Locals said 6" snow on the road, an RV stuck sideways and "all the granolas are coming out of the hills!" We went climbing in SE Utah instead.

You know the world has gone to hell when that happens!