Special Book Lists

Atlases and Maps

Featured Books

America's Wilderness
The Photographs of Ansel Adams

On the Loose - Back in Print!

Great Lodges of the National Parks

The Complete Walker IV, by Colin Fletcher

Table of Contents

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web VirtualGuidebooks.com

April 16, 2008
Updates to Redwood National Park

The Virtual Guidebook to Redwood National Park covers that magical far corner of California from Trinidad north to the Oregon border. It isn't just the national park (which is actually a composite of national and state park lands) as it includes Crescent City, several small towns, a number of state parks and some national forest.

This was one of the first areas that I set out to cover methodically, and hence has a large proportion of older panoramas (before 2000). These were shot on negative film and although the photographic quality is high, the scanning process did not produce true colors and sharp images. Maybe someday I will take the time to re-scan so I can produce first-rate panos, but my immediate plan is to re-photograph these areas whenever I have the opportunity. This is no real hardship, as I love visiting this area.

Starting at the northwest end (my usual way of ordering geographic contents) we come first to Crescent City - and a lot of old panoramas. These will stay until I can get back up there for rephotography. The older film-based panos are instantly recognizable by their smaller thumbnail images, and the absence of a fullscreen version.

The "Redwood National and State Parks" begin just outside Crescent City, with Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park on the Smith River. A major part of this park is on Mill Creek, which can be seen to advantage from the Howland Hill Road, an unpaved one-laner which has hardly changed since stage-coach days. The Boy Scout Tree Trail leads from this road through some of the most magnificent forest on earth, home to a number of world champion trees.

I have a lone pano from the Smith River Recreation Area - a favorite destination of mine in pre-panography days. I need to get back there to document the beautiful South Fork of the Smith River, the historic Kelsey Trail, and the unique geology and botany.

Del Norte Redwoods State Park spills down the high bluffs south of Crescent City. Hiking the Damnation Creek trail down to the coast here has been high on my "to do" list for years. More rephotography is needed at Klamath and the north end of Prairie Creek Park.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is considered one of the crown jewels of the California state park system. Though I visit it almost every year I still don't have a good set of panoramas, partly because I am often with a class (see my blog comments on panography and the field class). But no excuses - I need to make it a high priority to photograph Elk Prairie and its resident elk, plus the amazing redwood forests.

Prairie Creek park spans from the sheltered valley of the creek across low ridges to the coast at Gold Bluffs Beach. The incomparable Fern Canyon is hidden here in the coastal bluffs.

For the second-ever World Wide Panorama event the theme was World Heritage, and Redwood National Park is a UNESCO listed world heritage site. I made a weekend trip and got some great photos. The one I used for the WWP site was taken on the Boy Scout Tree Trail as a full spherical image - but I didn't have time to create it as a cubic pano for the event. I have done so subsequently (standard size or fullscreen). This was also the trip where I captured one of my best panoramas ever (standard size or fullscreen), in the fog and huge ferns of the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.

My memories of Orick and Redwood Creek go back to high school, when I made one of my first solo trips to the newly created Redwood National Park. It was truly an adventure, including three days spent camping alone at the Tall Trees Grove. I repeated the hike a few years later with my sister and a group of college friends - by that time intensive logging was taking place all around the park perimeter. Given that personal history, I really need to produce a better series of panos, retracing my hike up the creek to the Tall Trees. Next summer - I promise.

The Humboldt Lagoons are a lovely string of freshwater lakes, drowned valleys cut off by barrier beaches. With the exception of Big Lagoon I haven't done them justice. I have always wanted to boat across Stone Lagoon to the primitive campsites on the far side.

I did manage to update my Patricks Point panos with a trip this last January - normally the north coast is not a prime destination in winter, but I was very lucky with the weather. I was particularly glad to be able to shoot a new series of the re-created Yurok Indian village of Sumeg, built within the park by Yuroks and park staff. My old panos have been very popular over the years, especially with school kids studying Native Americans.

Finally we come to Trinidad, a delightful little town with a harbor and lighthouse, beach and pier. My panoramas continuing south from here can be found in the Virtual Guidebook to the Northern California Coast (currently being revised).

Another big update to the Redwood National Park guidebook will probably be forthcoming next fall, after my summer trips.

March 10, 2008
New Panoramas of Oregon

With two years of catching up to do, this update increases the number of panoramas of Oregon on the site from 257 to 375. Let me tell you about it guidebook by guidebook.

The Oregon Coast:
In June of 2006 I finished my long trip to the northwest with a couple of days on the southern Oregon coast. I came over the mountains from Corvallis to Newport on Yaquina Bay, then worked my way south. There are new panoramas in the following localities: Newport, Alsea Bay and Yachats, Heceta Head, Cape Blanco, Port Orford, Rogue River, and Boardman State Park.

My favorites are one taken late in the day at Whaleshead Beach (standard size or fullscreen), and a scene with local people crab fishing by the big bridge at Yaquina Bay (standard size or fullscreen).

Portland and the Columbia River Gorge:
I have added several new views of Oregon City, including the John McLoughlin House National Historic Site. See the Oregon City localities, upper and lower. This was the first incorporated city in the west, along with many other firsts, and was the official end of the Oregon Trail.

In the Columbia Gorge section I added some much-needed spherical shots of waterfalls, such as Latourelle (standard size or fullscreen) and Multnomah (standard size or fullscreen). There are new panos in every locality except Bonneville Dam, just start at Crown Point and work your way east. I particularly like this shot of Wah Gwin Gwin Falls at the Columbia Gorge Hotel (standard size or fullscreen).

The Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon:
New panos of historic Champoeg (the birthplace of American Oregon), Canyonville, Grants Pass, and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument near Ashland. Once again I had to skip Salem because of a lack of time - but next year for sure.

The Oregon Cascades:
In July 2007 I spent a week in the Oregon Cascades, enjoying a long day hike in the Marion Lake area, another day seeing waterfalls and forests on the upper McKenzie River and Willamette Pass Highway, plus the dramatic lava fields of McKenzie Pass.

I planned to spend two days on Mount Hood, but had to cut it short when heavy smoke from a fire on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation cut visibility and made breathing difficult. All I managed to see before beating a strategic retreat was Timberline Lodge. But there was an unexpected bonus - it was Smokey the Bear's birthday, and he posed for a picture with me (standard size or fullscreen) (Smokey is the one on the left).

I also finally got around to taking the boat tour at Crater Lake. The views of the lake from the rim drive viewpoints are beautiful (standard size or fullscreen), but the lake level perspective is very different (standard size or fullscreen).

Only two tours a day go to Wizard Island, which I have always wanted to visit, so I had to get up early to stand in line (no reservations taken). We only had two hours on the island, just enough time to hike to the top of the cinder cone, around the rim, and have lunch. Fast-moving clouds made panoramic photography difficult, but it was a very satisfying day's outing. Recommended. My favorite shot features one of the silvery snags on the crater rim (standard size or fullscreen).

Eastern Oregon:
In summer 2007 I targeted a few previously overlooked areas east of the Cascades. First, the lower John Day River and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Painted Hills unit and Sheep Rock unit. I particularly like an other-worldly shot of the boardwalk at Painted Cove (standard size or fullscreen).

Back closer to the mountains, I documented the charming town of Sisters, including one of my periodic personal appearances, in a delightful campground in the ponderosa pine forest east of town (standard size or fullscreen). Further south, I added a few shots from Newberry National Volcanic Monument and the interesting area around Fort Klamath.

There are a lot more panoramic opportunities waiting for me in Oregon and I plan to visit there every year. I need to revisit the Kalmiopsis area in the southwest corner and Smith Rock near Bend. I love the river canyons on the west slope of the Cascades, and need to get back to the alpine meadows on Mount Jefferson when they are summer green and flowery. The Oregon coast always beckons, and I need better panos of the Seaside/Cannon Beach area, and the Cascade Head preserve.

But most importantly I need to spend a few days concentrating on the charming city of Portland. It was on my itinerary in both 2006 and 2007, but got rained out both times.

March 7, 2008
On My Way to Leadville

Sometimes I end up spending more time along the way than at my planned destination. On my Colorado Rockies trip last summer (June 28 to July 10), out of thirteen days on the road I only spent two in the Rockies, and on one of those it rained all day. But it was a successful trip nonetheless, improvising and exploring as I dodged bad weather and major forest fires. I ended up shooting a lot of places from my list - just not the ones that I had planned on, and have added new panoramas to no less than eight guidebooks.

My first night was spent at Pyramid Lake on the Paiute Indian Reservation north of Reno. You can camp almost anywhere along the west shore of the lake (though there are no facilities) and I was able to find a spot on a bluff top with no other campers nearby. So this trip began with a night of magnificent solitude (standard size or fullscreen), a great sunset, then an even better sunrise (standard size or fullscreen). Better entertainment than any casino-hotel in Nevada, as far as I am concerned.

Then I hit the highway and spent most of the day crossing Nevada to Salt Lake City. I had planned to revisit Temple Square and drive out to Antelope Island to camp, but the heat was oppressive and the air was polluted with smoke from forest fires, so I ended up in a motel.

But the day after that was great. First a couple of historic Mormon towns: the railroad town of Ogden; then Brigham City with the nearby Bear River Wildlife Refuge on the northern arm of the Great Salt Lake. The Salt Lake is a closed basin and in wet years the lake level rises, in dry cycles it recedes. There is an impressive new visitor center (standard size or fullscreen) , replacing one that was flooded out a few years ago.

Late in the afternoon I got to Golden Spike National Historic Site. I expected not much more than a plaque out in the middle of nowhere (the railroad bypassed this area many years ago). To my amazement, when I got there I found the two historic locomotives standing on the tracks, nose to nose as in the famous photographs (standard size or fullscreen). They are replicas, very faithful ones, and had steam up ready to roll. You can stand on the tracks between them, directly over where the golden spike was driven (standard size or fullscreen). I barely had time to take a few different views, when they announced that the locomotives were going back to the train shed. So I hustled a mile down the tracks and shot them as they steamed past (standard size or fullscreen).

Some of the places I shoot are completely fortuitous, I just stumble upon them, or I see something intriguing on a map. It said "Thiokol Missile Exhibit" on the map near Golden Spike so I made a slight detour to check it out. It turned out to be a missile fuel facility, closed to the public, but with an impressive array of (dummy) missiles in front of the office building (standard size or fullscreen). It's a company with an interesting history.

Finding a cool and pleasant place to camp that night turned out to be a challenge and I ended up heading east into the Wasatch Range. I was pulled over by a state trooper for going 75 in a 50 mph zone as I came down the grade towards Logan. He let me off, presumably because I claimed (with total honesty) to have been distracted by the beauty of the view.

The next morning I went up to Tony Grove Lake (standard size or fullscreen), north of Logan Canyon, named for the "tony" local elite who used to camp there. Then I followed the Bear River from Bear Lake (standard size or fullscreen) south all the way to its source on the north side of the Uinta Mountains, ending with the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway. Nice lakes and meadows but the most dramatic parts of the range are remote from any roads and not easily viewed.

There was a huge forest fire burning in the eastern Uintas, with smoke blowing east - right towards where I was heading next. So I poked around the southwest corner of Wyoming for a couple of days. Fort Bridger is a fascinating bit of history (standard size or fullscreen), maintained as a state park. To camp I drove south to China Meadow in Wasatch-Cache National Forest, an area popular with locals and practically unknown to the outside world (standard size or fullscreen).

Evanston, Wyoming is an interesting old railroad town (standard size or fullscreen), which will be even more so when they finish restoring the locomotive roundhouse. This is rolling sagebrush country, thinly settled, with the original route of the trans-continental railroad running through it (standard size or fullscreen). Fossil Butte National Monument is famous for its fossil quarry and has an excellent visitor center, but what I enjoyed most was the road up to the mesa top (standard size or fullscreen).

Then south once again into Utah, the forest fire still burning, but the smoke blowing elsewhere. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area was a surprise. I expected a red rock canyon (standard size or fullscreen), but not the adjacent high country (standard size or fullscreen). To get around the gorge the road climbs through miles of beautiful forest with extensive views (standard size or fullscreen), then drops dramatically to the Green River .

Next major stop was Dinosaur National Monument. The canyon of the Green River was scenic (standard size or fullscreen), but the famous dinosaur quarry was closed for rehabilitation, and the heat was intense. Some miles east I took a road that heads north from the tiny town of Dinosaur into the monument's backcountry, Another beautiful high mesa (standard size or fullscreen), ending with a short hike to a dramatic viewpoint above Echo Park (standard size or fullscreen), the junction of the Green and Yampa Rivers. I badly wanted to drive down to the river, but was feeling pressed for time - this was my Colorado Rockies trip, after all, and it was more than half over, with the Rockies not yet in sight.

On the way back to Dinosaur I saw lightning strike repeatedly in the flatlands below, then a column of smoke. It is not often that you actually see lightning start a fire (I phoned it in). I drove eastwards through rolling country, stopping for a great sunset (thanks to all the fires), then camped on the Yampa River in the eastern part of the monument (standard size or fullscreen).

The next day I finally reached the Rockies at Steamboat Springs, where it began to rain, and continued all day and night. But the next day the weather was clear and I made a loop through some of the best of the Colorado Rockies. First through the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70, then back over the top on Loveland Pass (standard size or fullscreen) and down past the Arapahoe ski resort (standard size or fullscreen).

West on the interstate again for a while, then south to Leadville (standard size or fullscreen). A very impressive and well preserved old mining town, free of the condo and resort development that has spoiled so many places in Colorado. Leadville was especially meaningful as I had just been reading Wallace Stegner's masterpiece Angle of Repose (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics), a significant part of which takes place there.

From Leadville I crossed the headwaters of the Arkansas River (standard size or fullscreen) and headed west again, into the Sawatch Range and over Independence Pass (standard size or fullscreen) to Aspen. I had intended to put some effort into documenting this interesting area, but Aspen was just too crowded and busy and I couldn't handle it.

Seeking a high cool place to camp I headed west and ascended Grand Mesa. This is an amazing and little known feature, a huge plateau of high country with desert all around. I spent the next morning exploring its little lakes in flowery meadows (standard size or fullscreen), and spruce forests (standard size or fullscreen).

The Lands End lookout (standard size or fullscreen) was a CCC project, as was the road that zig zags up from the desert. A drunk driver had run off the road just below the lookout (standard size or fullscreen). The south side of Grand Mesa has a cluster of deep glacial lakes in forest (standard size or fullscreen) and there are some beautiful aspen groves (standard size or fullscreen).

But the day wasn't over yet. On the way to my motel in Grand Junction I made the loop drive through Colorado National Monument. Some prime red rock scenery (standard size or fullscreen) but the air was smoky and the light just wasn't good. At Cold Shivers Point a young woman was sitting on the cliff edge past the railing, feet dangling over the vertical drop, staring at her cell phone. I wondered if she was planning to jump, and if I should say something. But she didn't, and I saw her driving away a little later, so there was no drama after all.

My trip was almost over so I headed west on the interstate, with a short side trip to the petroglyph site in Sego Canyon (standard size or fullscreen) and road-side views of the San Rafael Swell country (standard size or fullscreen). It was smoky everywhere, but got much worse as I approached Salina. Sure enough, dozens of big fires were raging ahead and traffic was backed up for miles. Over a hundred miles of Interstate 15 had been closed and I had to detour down the old highway along the Sevier River. But it worked out okay - I camped at Cedar Breaks National Monument that night (standard size or fullscreen).

This put me far from my original route, and fires were still burning to the north. So I headed across Nevada on the Extraterrestrial Highway, stopping at the Little A'le Inn (standard size or fullscreen) for a beer (standard size or fullscreen). That night I camped very comfortably in the Jeffrey pine forest east of Mono Lake (standard size or fullscreen).

So, the trip to the Colorado Rockies was kind of a bust, but on the way there and back I saw: Pyramid Lake, Ogden, Brigham City, Golden Spike, Thiokol missiles, Logan, the Uintas, Fort Bridger, Evanston, Fossil Butte, more Uintas, Flaming Gorge, Dinosaur, Echo Park, Grand Mesa, Colorado National Monument, Cedar Breaks, and the Extraterrestrial Highway. Not so bad, after all.

February 29, 2008
New Panoramas of Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen

The volcanic northeast corner of California is one of my favorite camping and hiking destinations. I swing through every year in the fall with my field class (see below) and often tarry a day or more on my way north to Canada in the summer. Over the last two years I have taken a number of new panoramas scattered around these two guidebooks, and now finally have them posted to the site.

Early summer of 2006 I explored upstream along the upper Klamath River from the Interstate 5 crossing - new country to me. Some beautiful landscapes (standard size or fullscreen), and of especial interest because of the controversy over two hydroelectric dams that block salmon and steelhead migration. We may well see the removal of Iron Gate Dam (standard size or fullscreen) in the next decade. Restoration of the fishery would be wonderful, though we would also lose these beautiful high desert reservoirs (standard size or fullscreen).

Upstream even further I had a look at the Klamath Wildlife Refuges and the agricultural town of Tulelake, center of the upper Klamath basin water crisis in dry years.

On my way to Canada in August 2006 I spent most of a day documenting the very complete and interesting company town of McCloud, just a few miles east of Interstate 5 on the south slopes of Mount Shasta. Controversy here, too, over a proposed huge bottling plant for natural spring water.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is a gem, but a difficult one to visit because the road is blocked with snow for so long into the summer. My wife and I made a long weekend camping trip there in late July 2006 and I filled in some of the major sights.

Manzanita Lake is the classic postcard view of Mount Lassen (standard size or fullscreen). Lake Helen records some of the heaviest snowfall in the world, and true-to-form was still frozen the last day of July (standard size or fullscreen). We didn't have time to hike to Bumpass Hell (my panos of which are very old and need to be replaced), but the Sulphur Works is a smaller version, and right on the main road (standard size or fullscreen).

February 22, 2008
Puget Sound Updated

On my many trips north through Washington to Canada I always seem to be rushing along Interstate 5 and missing the interesting places just a bit off to the side. So in 2006 I slowed down and explored. First the old port district of Bellingham known as Fairhaven - where a jazz concert was taking place (standard size or fullscreen). Then south on Chuckanut Drive (standard size or fullscreen), which follows the steep shore of Puget Sound where I-5 goes inland. Then a few hours in the picturesque waterfront village of La Conner (standard size or fullscreen), over the Rainbow Bridge (standard size or fullscreen) and on to Deception Pass, (standard size or fullscreen) one of my favorite Northwest camping spots.

In 2006 I spent just one day walking around Seattle. I could only cover the downtown area and part of the waterfront, plus a quick visit to Pike Place. I really need to devote a week to Seattle some time (maybe summer of 2008), so I can begin to do justice to this beautiful city.

In late July last summer I spent a few days wandering around the Kitsap Peninsula and the San Juan Islands (plus the Olympia Peninsula, as noted here). The weather was superb, which is not always the case up there.

I was charmed by the Port Orchard area, near Bremerton. Further north I visited the pseudo-Norwegian town of Poulsbo (standard size or fullscreen), the restored historic town of Port Gamble (standard size or fullscreen), and the lighthouse at oddly named Point No-Point (standard size or fullscreen).

San Juan Island itself was wonderful, with the historic legacy of the Pig War at English Camp in the north (standard size or fullscreen) and American camp in the south (standard size or fullscreen). Plus the lighthouse at Lime Point (standard size or fullscreen) and some very nice countryside, including a lavender farm (standard size or fullscreen).

A beautiful ferry ride (standard size or fullscreen) took me to Orcas Island where I camped at Moran State Park, the gem of the Washington park system. The ranger urged me to drive immediately to the top of Mount Constitution to enjoy the exceptionally clear evening. I did, and it was worth it (standard size or fullscreen). I went back the next morning (standard size or fullscreen). The tower here was built by the CCC.

Also on Orcas Island - beautiful lakes in Moran park (standard size or fullscreen), mariculture in Ship Bay (standard size or fullscreen), the elegant Rosario Resort (standard size or fullscreen), and charming little harbors scattered around (standard size or fullscreen), before I had to return to the ferry dock (standard size or fullscreen) and head back to the mainland. I was due at my niece Sarah's wedding in two days, in Vancouver, and could not be late as I was to perform the ceremony!

On my way home, after the wedding, I spent a few hours in the interestng town of Centralia. It is the only town in Washington (or so far as I know the entire West) to be founded by an African American - named George Washington (standard size or fullscreen). It is also noted for a violent clash between the International Workers of the World (IWW - or "wobblies") and the American Legion, in 1919, known to history as the Centralia Massacre. Centralia has a well preserved downtown district (standard size or fullscreen) and a number of interesting murals (standard size or fullscreen). I also managed to photograph Amtrak passing through (standard size or fullscreen).

These additions brought the number of panoramas in the Virtual Guidebook to Seattle and Puget Sound from a pathetic 60 to a reasonably respectable 165. In summer of 2008 I hope to spend some time in Seattle, maybe make a day trip over to Bremerton, revisit Tacoma, and poke around the southern Sound.

February 7, 2008
New Panoramas of the Olympic Peninsula

Today I posted a new edition of my virtual guidebook to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. There are now 112 panoramas (up from 83). I have replaced some very old panos taken on negative film a decade ago with new high resolution cubics (so you can look straight up and down). Compare one of the old ones to a new version (standard size or fullscreen) taken in almost the same location.

I had several days of beautiful weather in August 2007 when I revisited the north side of Olympic National Park - great new images of Lake Crescent, the forest at Marymere, and Hurricane Ridge. My favorite was taken from the end of the pier at Crescent Lake Lodge, with a rustic bench offering serene views in two directions (standard size or fullscreen).

Then a cloudy day gave me perfect conditions to shoot the Hoh Rain Forest. There are rain forests in each of the major west-facing valleys on the peninsula (Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Hoh, Queets, and Quinalt), but the Hoh is the most famous by far. Two short loop trails from the visitor center at the end of the road show off the Hall of Mosses area with its bigleaf maples, and the towering Sitka spruce rain forest.

I'm not nearly done with the Olympic Peninsula. Most importantly, I hope to backpack up the Queets River again to photograph its superb wilderness rainforests. My wife Nora and I did this years ago (before I started taking panoramic photos) with her sister Barbara and brother-in-law Mike, who have been hiking it annually for many years. Mike grew up in nearby Hoquiam, and the Queets is his family's special place - we even met two of his cousins while hiking there. One of the allures of the Queets is the small number of people, largely due to the fact that the trail begins with an often daunting ford of the river. Once across there are miles of nearly flat trail through prime Sitka spruce forest, maple and alder groves, with good camping on the river bars.

I have other high priority destinations on my Olympic trip planning list. When I was still in high school I hiked (alone) up the Hoh River all the way to the Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus, an adventure I hope to repeat. And as a waterfall fancier (see my site Waterfalls of Western North America) I have always wanted to visit the Enchanted Valley. This is a lush steep-sided valley high up on the Quinalt River, a two day hike from the roadhead. It has glacier and snow-fed waterfalls all along the valley walls, and is sometimes called the "Valley of a Thousand Waterfalls". I also have always wanted to backpack the wilderness coast of Olympic National Park and I need to revisit Cape Flattery on a non-foggy day. And finally, I hope to explore some of the short steep valleys on the east side of the Olympic Mountains above Hood Canal.

January 20, 2007
Finally, Some VR Panoramas of Colorado

Virtual guidebook to the Colorado Rockies
I am based in Berkeley, California, and there are practical limits to how well I can cover the huge area encompassed by the Virtual Guidebooks. Colorado is right out on the edge, an 18 hour drive from the Bay Area to Denver. Also, being mountainous, many areas are best visited only in the summer (unless I start doing ski resorts and snowshoe routes).

In May 2006 I drove across the San Juan Mountains, through Ouray and Silverton. Too early in the year for the high altitudes - I will have to go back in mid-summer.

In the summer of 2007 I made a special effort to photograph the Colorado Rockies. My initial itinerary, to include Wyoming, the Dakotas, and the high plains, was just too much driving for the time available. So I decided to concentrate on the central Rockies, plus two days in Denver. Even that didn't work out - bad weather and forest fires - so I never made it to Rocky Mountain National Park, or to Denver.

I really had only one day in the central Rockies, so I made a loop over Loveland Pass to Leadville, then across the headwaters of the Arkansas River to Independence Pass. Then I had to start home. Maybe next summer...

Virtual Guidebook to Western Colorado
Many people are unaware of how much of Colorado is desert, some of it the sort of red rock country we associate with Utah. It is closer to my home base than the Rockies, and the weather is better, so I now have pretty good coverage, including the Harpers Corner Road in the eastern part of Dinosaur National Monument, the upper Yampa River, Colorado National Monument, the high country of Grand Mesa, the Land O'Lakes on the south side of the mesa, and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

In 2006 I spent a day down in the Four Corners area investigating the scattered sites of Hovenweep National Monument (Hovenweep's main site and the monument headquarters are across the state line in Utah).

Some of my earliest digital photography was done at Mesa Verde National Park in May 2000. It is a fabulous place to do VR panoramas, but problematic. There are crowds of people, and most of the ruins can only be toured as part of a group. Doing VR with a crowd of 70 people is just about impossible, the panos end up being about the people, not the ruins. The only way to do it right is to hire an off-duty ranger to give you a personal tour - I may try that some day.

December 9, 2007
More About Roslyn, Washington (Cicely, Alaska)

A few days ago I mentioned my newly posted panos of Roslyn, Washington, also known as Cicely, Alaska, and promised to say more.

Roslyn is a picturesque small town in the eastern foothills of the Cascades (nearest sizeable town is Ellensburg). Its history centers around the coal mines and multi-ethnic populations brought in to work them. But its moment of fame came when the television series Northern Exposure was filmed there. The series is considered important enough to have its own Wikipedia entry.

The series first aired in 1990 and continued for six seasons, a total of 110 episodes. The basic premise is that a small Alaskan town pays for a medical student's education, and in return he is obligated to practice there for several years once qualified. Doctor Joel Fleischmann arrives straight from New York City, feeling as much out of place as if he had landed on Mars.

Anyone who has seen Northern Exposure will remember the vivid characters in its large cast - Doctor Joel, Maggie, Maurice, Holling, Shelly, Marilyn, Ed, Ruth-Anne and Chris. The plots are quirky and interesting, many of them revolving around the cultural friction between Jewish New Yorker Joel and his new Alaskan community and environment. But there are also some intriguing takes on Alaska itself, with its long winter nights, spring thaw, Native Americans, bears and moose, isolation, and spirit of stubborn nonconformity.

Not everyone in Alaska appreciated the characterizations. There has of course been some speculation about which town in Alaska might have been the model for Cicely, with Nenana, Talkeetna, Hope, and Homer all being suggested. And of course Washington is not a fully convincing stand-in for Alaska. For one thing the trees are wrong, also it isn't dark nearly enough in the winter episodes, nor frozen enough. But those are quibbles - the opening credits, with a young moose wandering through the town, now epitomize Alaska to many who have never been there.

Most of the episodes begin with the "Chris in the Morning" radio show on station KBHR (kay-bear, get it?), the most local station imaginable, serving just Cicely. The DJ is Chris Stevens (played by John Corbett, also charming in My Big Fat Greek Wedding), a philosophical ex-con with a gentle voice and eclectic tastes. The KBHR set is still there in Roslyn, in the Northern Mining Company building (standard size or fullscreen). A monument to the city's coal mining heritage has now been built in front.

The "Oasis" Roslyn Cafe (standard size or fullscreen), and other series venues, including Dr Joel's office and The Brick pub, can be seen along the main street, Penn Avenue (standard size or fullscreen), but others existed only as sets. There have been a few changes in the town since 1990, but all in all it remains a gem of a northwest frontier town, with the bonus of reminding us of Northern Exposure.

Northern Exposure - The Complete Series

Northern Exposure - The Complete First and Second Seasons
Northern Exposure - The Complete Third Season
Northern Exposure - The Complete Fourth Season
Northern Exposure - The Complete Fifth Season
Northern Exposure - The Complete Sixth Season

The music in the broadcast version of Northern Exposure was exceptional, starting with the opening credits. Some DVD versions seem to have altered the sound track, but the Complete Series edition promises most of the original music. The music is also available on CD.

Northern Exposure: Music From The Television Series (1990-95 Television Series)
More Music From Northern Exposure (1990-95 Television Series)

November 27, 2007
New Panoramas of the Washington Cascades

I have been considering my new page layout and navigation experiment (see the blog entry for November 23 and Eastern Washington) for a couple of weeks now. I have decided that I like it, and will begin gradually switching the site over to this new system.

First up - the Cascade Range of Washington. The number of panos here has gone up from 48 to 144 and features a great series along the Spirit Lake Highway leading to Mount Saint Helens.

This is one of the most dramatic parts of the Pacific Northwest, a chain of mighty volcanoes atop a rugged older range, set in a matrix of ancient forests. I first fell in love with it when my family drove from California to Seattle for the World's Fair in 1962, spending a beautiful sunny day in the meadows at Paradise on Mount Rainier. Over the years since then I have been back to Rainier several times, as well as most other major parts of the range.

New panoramas in this guidebook:

The North Cascades: Skagit River, the town of Diablo, Diablo and Ross Lakes, Washington Pass, and the Cascade River Road. These were mostly photographed in August 2006. They are all in, or on the edge of, North Cascades National Park, and along the North Cascades Highway. The scenery is stunning, and I was blessed with good weather. You can see me enjoying an evening in camp on the Cascade River (standard size or fullscreen).

Roslyn, also known as Cicely, Alaska (in the television series Northern Exposure), photographed August 16, 2006. I will write more about this interesting town later.

Sunrise, in Mount Rainier National Park, also from August 2006. I was planning a longer stay and to re-photograph the Paradise area also on this trip, but encountered some pretty severe obstacles. First, there was a huge forest fire to the northeast and visibility was poor and getting worse, plus the smoke was giving me breathing problems, especially when hiking.

But then a real disaster - the tripod mounting socket tore right out the bottom of my camera! It was really my fault, not the camera's, I was putting far too much strain on the socket with my heavy VR mount. It broke when I was hauling it carelessly out of the backpack. Live and learn. I took one final pano at Shadow Lake (standard size or fullscreen) hand-held, then called it quits. As it turned out, that was my last pano of the summer.

Mount Saint Helens was big news when it erupted explosively in May of 1980. Since then the area has been evolving steadily, the forests growing back and streams running clear. The volcano itself has had a series of smaller eruption, and is still emitting blue smoke and occasional clouds of ash. But the big change has been tourism - creation of Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument and the building of a major highway approaching the mountain from Interstate 5 to the west. I revisited Mount Saint Helens in August 2007.

The Spirit Lake Memorial Highway offers a tantalizing series of views ahead to the mountain as it winds along ridges above the Toutle River. There are four major visitor centers along the route. The largest is at Coldwater Ridge, but the most popular and dramatic is right at the end of the road, the Johnson Ridge Observatory. Less traveled by far are the roads that approach Mount Saint Helens from the east side, leading to Windy Ridge.

The Cascades are densely forested from sea level to timberline, and significant areas of old growth remain among the checkerboard of clearcuts. In August 2007 I spent some time in these wonderful forests, primarily on lower Iron Creek in the Cispus River basin, and at Cedar Flats on the Muddy River. The Iron Creek campground is an experience in itself, a chance to camp among towering Douglas firs (standard size or fullscreen). Most of these panos were taken on the nature trail that circles the campground. The Cedar Flats Research Natural Area was set aside to protect the giant western red cedars growing there in swampy conditions, but also contains big trees of several other species.

A series of forest service roads give access the south side of Mount Saint Helens, including Ape Cave. At two miles this is the longest lava tube cave in North America. The Lewis River has more beautiful forests and lots of waterfalls.

The Cascade Range is cut right across by the mighty Columbia River, protected on both sides as the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The Oregon side, with hundreds of waterfalls, gets most of the attention. But the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge is beautiful, too. Bonneville Dam blocks the river and submerges the historic Cascades for which the river was named. It is an interesting place to visit, with its powerhouse and fish ladders.

Future plans for panography in the Cascades? First of all I badly need to rephotograph the Paradise area on Mount Rainier in early summer. And I have always wanted to approach Mount Rainier from the west side, up the little-used Carbon River and Westside Roads. I tried to do this in 2007, but all the roads were washed out. I would also like to backpack into the Glacier Peak Wilderness, and take the long boat ride up Lake Chelan to Stehekin again.

November 23, 2007
New Page Layouts and Navigation

Here's the news - I have converted one of the guidebooks, Eastern Washington, to a new format. I think it works pretty well - let me know what you think - dbain@VirtualGuidebooks.com.

When I first devised the Virtual Guidebooks site, in January 2000, there were two versions of each panorama, small and large. But technology changes fast, and the former "large" size is now my standard size. With a little coaching from Hans Nyberg (see his site Panoramas.dk) I prepared one of my panoramas to be his "fullscreen of the week". This was At the foot of Mount Whitney, to be followed by White Sands, New Mexico, and the Olympic rain forest on the Queets River. I agree with Hans that the fullscreens seem like a totally different graphic to most people, compared to small panos in context on a page.

So I began to make fullscreen versions of all my high resolution, digital camera panos. By 2004 I had fullscreens ready for a majority of my work, so I added them to almost every part of the Virtual Guidebooks site.

The problem with adding the fullscreens was that it disrupted my carefully worked out navigation. You could do a Previous-Next tour at the guidebook, locality, and standard size panorama level. But fullscreens have no place for my standard navigation bar, plus they open in a new window. It works pretty well - when you close a fullscreen window you are back where you started, the original window was just hidden underneath the fullscreen. But the asymmetry bothered me. And I never satisfactorally resolved the problem of navigation back and forth between the locality pages for standard size and fullscreen size. Also I had made larger thumbnails for the fullscreen versions, and they made the small old ones look pretty pathetic.

So I decided to have just one series of locality pages, using the large thumbnails, with links to both the standard and fullscreen panos. Both types of panos open in similar fullscreen windows. It is simpler, more consistent, and I think easier to browse than the old system. If I continue to like it I will gradually convert the entire site to this new plan.

November 11, 2007
Weekend Trip to the Mendocino Coast

Fall and winter is usually when I stay home and catch up on processing the panos taken earlier in the year and work on my site and other projects. My travel urge is satisfied by the field trip class (see the Blog for October 24, 2007), and the weather gets progressively less inviting. But sometimes my wife (Nora) and I just need to get away. So last weekend we cleared four days on our calendars and headed for Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast.

We left the Bay Area on Saturday afternoon (November 10) and had an elegant dinner in Healdsburg in the Sonoma wine country. I remember when it was just a small farm town, but now it is full of wine tasting rooms, antique shops, restaurants and art galleries. After dinner I spotted some superb wide format landscapes in the Capture Gallery and we went in. The photographer, Chistopher Foster, was there and we had a chance to chat. He is doing landscape work in large format (4x5 view camera), then scanning and stitching in PTGui. I was very impressed with the quality of his work - see christopherfoster.com. The gallery was also showing work by Joseph Holmes, who I have known since college days. Joe does natural landscapes of ultimate quality: josephholmes.com. Seeing their work inspired me to pay more attention to the possibility of printing my own panoramas.

The next day we crossed the north coast ranges through Boonville (standard size or fullscreen) in the Anderson Valley, enjoying fall colors at the Navarro Vineyards tasting room (standard size or fullscreen), then up the coast to the charming New England-style town of Mendocino. The surf was high, the sun was bright, but the wind was biting. We took a brisk walk around the headlands (standard size or fullscreen) then browsed in the Gallery Bookshop on Main Street. I bought an interesting looking book entitled Boonville: A Novel, by local author Robert Mailer Anderson, set in the town we had just passed through.

Mendocino may be familiar to many as the stand-in for fictional Crab Cove, Maine, where the Murder She Wrote television series takes place. There is a series of books that follows the series, such as: Murder, She Wrote: Coffee, Tea, or Murder? The authors are listed as Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain. Jessica Fletcher is the fictional detective in the series, Donald Bain is a prolific ghost writer (no relation).

That night we had an excellent meal in the unpretentious Captain Flint seafood restaurant in the fishing boat harbor of Noyo, down under the Highway One bridge. The menu was chips with everything (fish and chips, squid and chips, clams and chips, my wife had beef and chips) and a great local beer, Scrimshaw Pilsner from North Coast Brewing Company. Recommended.

Overnight a storm blew in and by morning everything was wet and blue-gray. I went back to Noyo and shot a few atmospheric panos (standard size or fullscreen). There were lots of crab pots piled neatly on the docks, waiting for the opening of crabbing season a few days later. In the afternoon we went back to Mendocino where I shot again on the headlands, the lighting radically different than just 24 hours before (standard size or fullscreen), and a series down Main Street (standard size or fullscreen). We had a late lunch at Pattersons Pub, very cozy, then walked through wind and light rain out to the restored lighthouse at Point Cabrillo (standard size or fullscreen) as the light rapidly faded.

For dinner we returned to Noyo and tried the upscale Silvers at the Wharf, next door to Captain Flints. White tablecloths and elaborate dishes, very good but overpriced, I actually preferred Flints. Then we went back to the motel, ate angel food cake with our fingers and drank champagne from plastic cups, while watching a movie on television in bed. Monday night in Fort Bragg!

Tuesday morning was misty but at least no longer raining. I walked around the historic downtown area of Fort Bragg (standard size or fullscreen) then we started home, this time crossing the mountains on the less-traveled Comptche-Ukiah Road. Yellow leaves on the hazelnut trees livened up the dark evergreen forests, about as much fall color as we get in most parts of California (standard size or fullscreen).

We stopped at Montgomery Woods State Reserve for a short hike. This small remote grove of old growth redwoods includes some of the world's tallest trees (365 feet) and a unique swampy forest floor with head-high giant chain ferns. One of the hidden gems of Mendocino county, it is worth many miles of windy roads to see. I think the very last panorama of the trip was the best (standard size or fullscreen).

October 28, 2007
Look Up! New Cubic Versions

I am gradually adding cubic (straight up and down) versions of many of my VR panoramas to the Virtual Guidebooks site, usually replacing cylindrical versions. Since the new cubics are scattered all over the site I have made a list and will update it as the project progresses.

First, three examples of when a cubic is much better than a cylinder. In the cubic version be sure to look up!

standard size:

Yosemite Falls: cylindrical or CUBIC

redwood forest: cylindrical or CUBIC

skyscrapers : cylindrical or CUBIC

fullscreen size:

Yosemite Falls: cylindrical or CUBIC

redwood forest: cylindrical or CUBIC

skyscrapers: cylindrical or CUBIC

I have made a complete list of new cubic versions of existing panoramas (much too long to include here).

These are all replacements, and there are more to come. There will also be some big updates in the near future that will have lots of cubics - such as San Francisco. The remaining replacements (cubic for cylindrical) are mostly in Yosemite and the deserts of Southern California.

More About Cubics

In the beginning QTVR was limited to a cylindric imaging model - you could look all the way around, but only a little bit up and down. It was new and exciting and for many subjects it worked well. Eventually Apple extended the technology to support a cubic (i.e. spherical) view, so you could look straight up and straight down, as well as all the way around. It was a whole new generation of amazing, crowd pleasing computer graphics.

But there were trade-offs. The VR file either had to be bigger to show a larger view, or if bandwidth was an issue, you had to reduce resolution. If there was really nothing up there but more blue sky, or down below but dirt or grass, why reduce resolution? So for most landscape subjects I stuck with the cylindrical view.

Another issue was the software. The first really good VR panorama production environment was Apple's QuickTime VR Authoring Studio, which only did cylinders. The two main programs that did cubic stitching had severe problems: PanoTools was ridiculously cumbersome to use; RealViz Stitcher was expensive and quirky and it was hard to get good results. I wasted a lot of time with those two programs, and only ever produced a few good cubics.

But some subjects just had to have more vertical field of view - cliffs, forests, tall buildings, deep canyons. Beginning in 2001 I was shooting multi-row cubics even though I wasn't finishing and posting any on the site.

I finally got started with cubic stitching a year ago, using PTMac. But there were still quality and efficiency issues, a lot of time spent manually assigning control points and retouching stitching problems in Photoshop. The breakthrough came when the program PTGui was ported to the Mac, with automatic control point generation that actually worked. Paired with CubicConverter it makes an excellent cubic panorama production system. Recommended.

I already had hundreds of cubics lined up ready to go. It took several months to work my way through, setting up the files then running the batch stitcher overnight. Then I had to examine each one, and sometimes make adjustments and stitch again. When I had a good stitch there still was some obligatory Photoshop work. So it has been about a year in progress, but now I am finally able to put these cubics on the site.

Some of these have never been posted before, but most are replacing a cylindrical version. In some cases I probably shouldn't have put up the cylinder in the first place, like my Yosemite waterfalls with the top cut off. But usually I offered a cylinder as a placeholder until I could produce a cubic.

Now I shoot cubics routinely and process the cylinders and cubics all together in the same workflow. For maximum quality I sometimes use a multi-tier approach (shooting a level tier, a tier up and another down), but usually I shoot cubics with a fisheye lens, a fast and efficient procedure.

Some VR photographers sneer at cylinders as being old-fashioned and inadequate. I disagree, and still shoot about 80% cylinders . They have a few inherent advantages - higher resolution from the same camera, easier to deal with certain types of moving objects, and more appropriate for printing "unwrapped". If there is important scene detail up above or down below, I put on the fisheye and shoot a cubic. But if there is just more sky and dirt, or if I see potential for a print, I still use a normal wide angle lens to make a cylinder. My cubics tend to be concentrated in certain landscape types - forests, canyons, and cities. Sometimes I shoot a cubic to capture a great cloud-scape.

As of today 164 cubics have been placed on the site to replace cylinders, with another 100 coming to finish the job (mostly Yosemite and the deserts of Southern California). Panoramas taken over the last year, and from now on, will be a mix of cubics and cylinders.

October 24, 2007
Panoramas and the Geography Field Class

It is hard to imagine that I could travel thousands of miles through spectacularly beautiful and interesting country and not take any panoramas. How could that be?

Every fall semester for the last eight years I have taught a field class in the Geography Department at the University of California Berkeley (as part of my real job - Virtual Guidebooks is a sideline). It is a great experience, both for the students and for me, but it leaves me little time for photography. As the instructor I have a lot on my mind, and just cannot muster the unique combination of creative thought and technical concentration necessary for shooting panoramas. Also we move very fast on these trips, driving as much as a thousand miles in a long weekend, plus hikes, talks, making and breaking camp, meals and campfires (sleep is optional).

Last fall semester (September 2006) I just had to take a pano on a field trip, because it was the window for the World Wide Panorama and my last chance. So for the theme "Transportation" I shot a quickie of the group setting up camp in the deep woods of northeastern California. It is entitled simply Field Trip! The next day, at Mossbrae Falls, the last stop of that same trip, I shot another with a very different mood (standard size or fullscreen).

On the second trip in 2006 I shot a partial panorama of our empty camp at the base of the dunes in Eureka Valley (standard size or fullscreen). Camp is empty because all the students were off trudging up the 700-foot high "sand mountain" at the time. On the third trip I shot a series of panos on the hike to the summit of Cone Peak in the Santa Lucia Mountains above Big Sur.

This year I missed lots of great panorama subjects on the first trip to Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta, and also on the second trip up the Redwood Highway. Not a single panorama! But I was determined to get something on the third and final trip, east of the Sierra.

The very first morning I shot next to a Joshua tree at sunrise in Red Rock Canyon (standard size or fullscreen). You can see the field class moving around our vehicles, drinking coffee and packing up to hit the road.

The next day in the Alabama Hills I arranged the students around me in a big circle and shot another pano. The opening view (standard size or fullscreen) shows Genki and our big truck (the Beast), pan it around right to Devin, then to Ryan being leaned on by big Dan (my co-leader), Heather is off in the distance, twice, then Katie K, myself, followed by Katie R. One of my favorite field trip groups. Several other students were elsewhere with Prof Cuffey at the time.

Only two panos for all that traveling - next year I shall have to do better!

October 23, 2007
New Panoramas of British Columbia

It has been a long time since I posted new panoramas on the site. Mostly I have been catching up on other VR projects, such as art quality prints, and cubic versions. There have only been two big updates in the last year.

In the guidebook to the Coast and Islands of British Columbia I have added a comprehensive section on the Sunshine Coast. These photos were taken when I was up there visiting my cousins Anne and Clive at their vacation house in Powell River in August 2006. The weather was beautiful, except for the day my cousin Heather (visiting from England) and I took the all-day boat tour to Princess Louisa Inlet. That day it just poured rain, all day without letup.

The Sunshine Coast is divided into eight localities, from Lund in the north to the Langdale-Horseshoe Bay Ferries in the south. My favorites are of kayakers at Smugglers Cove (standard size or fullscreen) and Bella Beach in Sechelt (standard size or fullscreen).

The other big update is actually a complete makeover. I originally covered the city of Vancouver, British Columbia very early on, when I was still using film. I can do much better now, with a digital SLR, plus I can do cubics easily, important for a city with so many tall buildings. So I spent three days there in August 2006 and walked all over the city.

I stayed at the Lonsdale Quay Hotel in North Vancouver and took the Seabus ferry over to Vancouver proper each day - much more efficient than dealing with my car in the city. The hotel was a lively, interesting place, with a mall and food hall underneath (standard size or fullscreen), several restaurants, and great views across the water (standard size or fullscreen). Recommended.

The new VR panoramas of Vancouver are in the guidebook to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. It is divided into nine localities, starting with the western shoreline of Stanley Park and progressing south and east to Gastown. There are also two new localities north of the city: Horseshoe Bay and North Vancouver.

My favorites are of the bagpiper at Brockton Point (standard size or fullscreen) (which I used as my Best of 2006 on the World Wide Panorama site) and inside the amazing new Vancouver Public Library (standard size or fullscreen).

I was back in Vancouver in August 2007 for my niece Sarah's wedding, but was too busy to do much photography. All I managed was an hour or so at Queen Elizabeth Park.

I am not done with Vancouver yet. There are still some important neighborhoods to cover (Chinatown, False Bay, Granville Island, UBC), and things are changing fast, as they prepare to host the Winter Olympics in 2008.

October 22, 2007
Welcome to the Virtual Guidebooks Blog

People keep asking me to start a blog (web log, a periodic posting of news and views) on the Virtual Guidebooks site. So here it is! My blog posts will appear here, on the home page, and also on Blogger - VirtualGuidebooks.BlogSpot.com.

My plan is to use the blog for several things.

• To alert my regular visitors when new panoramas have been added to the site. The new ones tend to get lost amongst the huge number already on the site.

• To tell you about my travels, which will usually include a few preview images. It often takes me as much as a year to finish the panos from a major trip and get them all on the site.

• To present more information about areas that I have featured on the site. This will include history, geography, and links to books, movies, and websites.

• To announce new projects, such as my plan to sell fine art prints of my panoramas.

I welcome feedback - email me: dbain@virtualguidebooks.com

Thanks,
Don Bain