See It: Occasional wildfires are a natural part of any forest and the beautiful Willamette (“Will-AM-it”) National Forest near Detroit Lake, Oregon is no exception. I had a few days before the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse to enjoy this exceptional area, as well as experience (from a great distance) a little bit of the massive Whitewater fire on the western flank of Mount Jefferson. The combination of early morning fog around the mountain and wildfire smoke in the valleys far below made the interesting light sculpture captured in this shot.
Wildfire or not, this is a spectacular place to visit. To visit this spot, you’ll want about 5 hours available to travel from Salem or Bend, Oregon in a high clearance vehicle. Be sure to bring a printed map, as road signs are few in National Forests. Just north of the resort town of Detroit, off of Oregon Route 22 (North Santiam Highway), take French Creek Road SE north into the mountains north of the lake. About 4 miles in, keep to the left as French Creek Road SE becomes NF-2223. At about 6 miles, bear right to stay on NF-2223. At 8 miles, keep left to switch to NF-520. Stay straight at 6.5 miles to remain on NF-520. At 11.5 miles, bear left to turn onto NF-525. Finally, at about 12 miles, turn right onto the side road heading up to the antenna towers and park on the right, about 500 feet up the road. To this spot, it’s about an hour and a half drive from Salem and 2 hours from Bend.
From your parking spot, walk southeast through the few trees along the road to the clearing overlooking Detroit Lake. You will see the lake below, 10,495′ high Mount Jefferson to the east and 7,795′ Mount Washington and the Three Sisters (9,177′, 10,085′, and 10,358′) to the south southeast. Head northeast up the hill to a larger clearing and see a broader swath of the lake, as well as the town of Detroit at the northwest end of the lake. More about Mount Jefferson, Detroit Lake.
Shoot It: This image was captured with a Canon 7D DSLR (crop factor 1.6), Canon EF-L 70-200mm f/2.8 lens at 85mm and f/8, 1/1000 sec, and ISO100, on a tripod, on August 19, 2017 at 7:22 AM. Basic adjustments and black and white conversion in Photoshop Lightroom.
Improve It: Why do you think I converted this shot to black and white? What do you think it looked like in color? What problems are you having with your photographs? Let me know at Inquiries@GibsonOutdoorPhoto.com and I will share some tips to overcome these issues in a future blog post.
Go Play Outside! 😎
-Scott