“Keep close to natures heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
-John Muir
Stunning mountains, gorgeous seas of evergreen trees standing tall and dramatic, plentiful lakes, rivers, meadows, scenic weathered beaches, rainforests, green pretty much all year long, and in stark contrast, the rain shadow desert east of the Cascades… this is the breathtaking Pacific Northwest. With so much diversity and so much natural beauty, there is hardly anywhere else on earth that compares. Every day, I feel so blessed to be able to call this place my home.
You know, it’s funny, I kind of took it all for granted, growing up in the Pacific Northwest (Redmond, to be precise). Sure, I liked the mountains and trees, but I often wondered what it would be like to live elsewhere – perhaps a place with at least a little more sunshine… So when the opportunity to finish college in the San Francisco Bay area came up, I took it. At first, I loved it – the 259 sunny days (on average) per year and the excitement of being in a technological innovation center like that made it nearly impossible to imagine living anywhere else. San Francisco itself had a thriving music and art scene like nothing I’d ever seen before. It felt like I was at the center of where things were really happening! And so I stayed in the Bay Area, thinking I’d found my true home.
But as time went on and like the old saying goes “sometimes you just don’t appreciate what you have until it is gone,” and I started to miss all of those things that I took for granted about the Pacific Northwest. You see, while the Bay Area is quite beautiful in its own way, there are no snow-capped mountains visible from just about any hilltop like there are here, there are no pristine mountain lakes a short drive or hike away, in fact, there is no snow anywhere within a hundred miles, and no gorgeous sea of pine trees stretching out as far as the eye can see, undulating with the landscape. Heck, I used to like summers growing up in Redmond, but after living in the Bay Area for many years, I grew to actually dislike summer! Sunny and warm or hot almost every day for months and months and months on end kind of killed it for me. I know it may sound crazy to some, but I missed the rain!!! I missed the snow even more and I missed the seasons in general. I missed the trees, the lakes, the mountains…
A few months after my family moved back to WA, I visited Mount Rainier for the first time since I was a kid. I stopped in Longmire on the way to Paradise and walked a short distance to a nearby field to get a view of the mountain. I remember watching as the clouds parted to reveal the massive peek hidden within. I remember being in such awe that I was seeing something so incredibly beautiful with my own eyes that I suddenly felt tears streaming down my cheeks. Being there, so close to it is an entirely different and incredible experience that you cannot recreate by simply looking at a photograph. Mount Rainier stands alone, literally toweringover everything as far as the eye can see. It is utterly, unequivocally the most magnificent thing I have ever seen with my own eyes. It was then that I knew with absolute certainty that now I am home. This is where I belong. All of those memories of building and sleeping in snow caves as a Boy Scout or hiking through the wildflower meadows came rushing back. I never want to leave these beautiful forests, mountains, lakes, valleys, rivers, this beautiful green place… Rain or shine, I love the Pacific Northwest!
Below are a few images from that day – my first time back to Mount Rainier since I was a kid. I photographed a couple having a maternity session there. Paradise was still too snowy and slippery for an expecting Mom, but we were able to find beautiful views of the mountain from farther down. The couple (who flew out from the East Coast for this session) recently contacted me over a year later to mention how much they still treasure these images.
And, now that summer no longer lasts about 8 months, I’m starting to enjoy that again too! JBecoming a photographer didn’t create a love of Pacific Northwest nature in me. Instead, I think it re-ignited that love, enhancing and strengthening a love of Pacific Northwest nature that was already there. I may have missed out on exploring this beautiful PNW for a while, but now I’m back and 100% ready for adventure! Want to hike into the mountains for jaw-dropping views for your engagement session or elopement, bring it! Let’s celebrate your love for each other and for this place we call home. Let’s do this!
What’s your love story with the Pacific Northwest? Please feel free to share what you love about this amazing place in the comments!