Cascadia is a bioregion encompassing the temperate rain forests of the Northwest. Cascadia is also a book, assembled by writers, artists and poets to describe over 120 beings in the area: human beings, plant beings, tree beings, and mountain beings with input from several area Indigenous tribes. The emphasis there and on my trip would be on the ideas of animacy, reciprocity and gratitude in the Northwest.

I was headed to Mt. Rainier for my first visit. My challenge would be to photograph varied parts of the park while also taking a vacation with my wife. I had heard the crowds at Paradise would be huge. Would I connect to this wilderness in a way I do back home? How would we balance family time with my photography?

I would not be disappointed. The trip awakened images of magic. My wife found the shooting locations equally as enchanting as I did. Nature didn’t just appear. Trees, mountains, glaciers, grouse, marmots and bears overwhelmed us. We were embraced by wildness. I present these photographs as placeholders for the surprise, glee, wonder, and humbled spirit I experienced there.

And one more thing: The poems were an epiphany!

From “Yellow-Pine Chipmunk” by Charles Finn in Cascadia:

There is a world out there

Larger than any imagined

Take it and fill the cheeks of your mouth

With the seeds of thanks

For the tiny paws, the stop and go mentality

For the frozen moments of time

When those almond-shaped, oil-drop  eyes

Look back into yours.

From“TheTree as Verb” by Bill Yake in Cascadia:

Stand, sketch out, stretch out, fork, reach, branch, 

   divide, incline and sway.

Reclaim, endure and burn.

Return, leaf out, green up, synthesize, digest, night-quiver,

   Yellow, wilt and wither, abscise,

And collapse to root and rise.