I took photos of windmills all along the trip. I can’t even remember all the states where we photographed windmills. Wyoming and Kansas. Maybe Indiana?
Day: January 24, 2009
Clear Cuts National Forest
One thing that struck both of us immediately as we set out early January 8 was how shocked we were at the bright, sunny, and simply warm weather. As we crossed the Siskiyou Pass, there was so little snow, the landscape around us looked almost summer-like in places. Then as we headed into California and passed through national forests, Shasta and Lassen, we were apalled at the level of clear cutting. The forests there were simply obliterated. We decided to take some photos.
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- Not a lot of snow for early January at over 6000 feet elevation.
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- A lovely mountain lake surrounded by muddy, bare hills.
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- Another glimpse of the bare mountain between valley trees.
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- A high mountain farm, raped and pillaged mountain in the distance.
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- The treelessness on the mountain in the distance is slightly visible through the bit of trees left below.
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- At least there are some sparse trees left at the bottom of the mountain.
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- This was a good view of one of the worst.
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- Although we were concerned by how warm it was, we were actually glad we weren’t driving through massive snow drifts!
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- Not a lot of trees left on this mountain.
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- No trees.
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- None here either.
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- Brown mountains.
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- This shot is one of the best for showing the extent of the damage.
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- We were able to see decimated logs all over the place. Some of them are visible in this shot, along with the miniscule snow cover.
Photo Diary: January 8 and 9, 2009
We left our house in Portland at about 6:00 p.m. on January 7. We headed south on I-5 because I-84 east was closed in places. We decided we would check out the weather in Wyoming once we hit Reno, and if things looked dicey, we would go south through Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first night we drove to Grants Pass and spent the night there before heading south the morning of January 8.
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- Mt. Shasta. We were heading south on I-5 when this photo was taken.
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- Mt. Shasta after we began heading east on CA-89.
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- Mt. Shasta, closer still.
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- A snowy meadow on the south side of CA-89. There was not a lot of snow, but what was there was lovely.
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- California forest.
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- The snow along the highway was really minimal.
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- Forest along CA-89, mid-afternoon January 8, 2009, at about 3 p.m.
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- Driving along the highway in Nevada from Elko to Salt Lake, January 9, 2009, 9 a.m.
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- Drive from Elko, Nevada to Salt Lake City.
Random Thoughts on Everything and Nothing 