Church Camp at Cape Lookout

Last week we went to Cape Lookout State Park for our church's annual camp-out.  This was our second year going to Cape Lookout--it has a nice campground with a great group site right next to the beach.  It was such a luxury to just walk out onto the beach any time we wanted to.  Here's some of my favorite shots from the days we were there.

I really liked the way these trees were lit up by the sunset on our first night there. This was just off to the side of our campsite.

Sunset on day one.

Sunrise on day two.  The tide was out and the reflections in the water left on the beach were so pretty.

 Off on the southern end of the beach, the cliffs come out towards that water, and there's lots of little sea creatures living on them. It's my favorite place to walk to at Cape Lookout.

Sunset on day two.

On day three, the clouds never really burned off.  Apparently there was a little cloud bank settled right over the Cape Lookout area.  Back in Tillamook where we got ice cream, it was a lovely day. 

That evening Christina and I explored a little sand bar during low tide. 

Looking back from the sand bar.

Definitely no sunset!

Water caught between the beach and the sandbar.

Really, despite the clouds, we couldn't complain.  It never rained, which was a real blessing.  The next morning, we woke up to yet another beautiful day.  I'm glad we had those days at the beach to enjoy God's creation and spend time with families from church.   

Thomas Lake Trail

Mom, Christina, and I joined some friends from church to go on a hike two Saturdays ago in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in the Indian Heaven Wilderness area.  Indian Heaven is a beautiful place with lots of little lakes and alpine meadows.  Everything is so still and quiet up there.  We took the Thomas Lake trail which was nice and not too difficult.  Thanks to Kyle for planning this one.  It was a fun day!

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of Mt. St. Helens.  Though we could see her pretty often, we never got a really good, unobstructed view. 

Blue Lake, appropriately named. ;) 

Hamilton Mountain

On Monday my family hiked Hamilton Mountain, which is out in the Gorge on the other side of the highway from Beacon Rock.  We had done part of the trail before.  When we got to this sign, we had turned around and decided to hike the rest of the trail some other day.

This time around, we were ready to tackle "more difficult."  It was a really enjoyable hike.  The climb up to Hamilton Mountain was fairly steep, but the spectacular views of the Gorge and the river made it worth it.  

The "Pool of Winds" is part of a nice waterfall on Hardy Creek. 

Looking down from the "Pool of Winds" over the rest of the waterfall and the trail bridge.

The view was so very beautiful!  My pictures don't do it justice.  This is looking west down the Columbia.  That's Beacon Rock down near the river on the bottom left.

It felt so good to reach the summit.

Looking east.  Table Mountain is on the far left.  Directly to the right of it is Mt. Adams, but it doesn't stand out very well in this picture.

Walking along a saddle away from the summit.

As you may know, Monday was a really hot day.  We definitely drank a lot, and we were glad to get back to the creek, take our boots off, and put our feet in the creek for a while. This was probably the best hike I've done in a while. 

Sliver of a Moon

Portraits of Christina

Now that I've learned more about portraits, I need to keep practicing! Yesterday Christina graciously went with me to Officers' Row so I could take some pictures of her.  We both had fun and I think some of the shots turned out pretty well, though there's always lots of room for improvement.  Here are three of my favorites.  These were edited in Adobe Lightroom.  I got a trial version for the workshop and now I know that I definitely want to buy it.