Mountain Sunrise, Rock Wall, Wildflower

A nearby hill (center) and distant mountain range (right) are silhouetted in this mountain sunrise on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 in southwest Montana.

Be sure and check out more sky photos in Skywatch Friday

Yesterday, we posted about an area known as Palisades along the Madison river. A large wall of rock lines the edge of the river for probably a quarter or half mile. The height of the wall must be about 200 feet and contains some interesting layers. Below we have an overview photo and then an enlargement to show you the detail.

The general elevation of this area is about 5500 feet.  Mountain wildflowers are abundant, although not many have bloomed this early.  The one below is a tiny flower, but we thought interesting and colorful.

Today's "point to ponder" ...

If you have to be happy

you will always be unhappy.

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Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Palisades Montana

Please be sure to click on the photo for the larger view. This is an area in southwest Montana known as The Palisades. It's bordered by a very large wall of rocks along the Madison River. The photo was taken on May 15, 2013, near the Palisades Campground. The whole area is remote and home of many kinds of wildlife. While visiting here we spotted a family of Canadian geese taking their very young goslings out for one of their first floats on the river. The geese were on the opposite side of the river so we have a series of enlargements. Focus and tiny movements keep perfection out of the captures, but still hope you will enjoy.

Mom keeping an eye on kids

Come on, kids ...

Mom calling for daddy?

Dad arrives.

All is well.

The Madison flows out of Yellowstone Park and joins up with the Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers to form the Missouri River near Three Forks, Montana.  The Missouri, of course, flows into the Mississippi which ultimately flows into the Gulf of Mexico.  (Just wanted to give you the scope!)

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Tobacco Root Mountains

The Tobacco Root Mountains
as seen from near Norris, Montana
Photo taken May 14, 2013
Click on photo for larger view.

From Wikipedia ...


The Tobacco Root Mountains lie in the northern Rocky Mountains, between the Jefferson and Madison Rivers in southwest Montana.The highest peak is Hollowtop at 10,604 feet (3,232 m). The range contains 43 peaks rising to elevations greater than 10,000 feet (3048 m).

Much of the central part of the range is within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, although many, mostly small patented mining claims exist within the forest boundary. The range saw significant gold mining, especially during the 1880s to 1930s.

The high peaks have been extensively glaciated, and most of the larger stream valleys held valley glaciers during the ice age.

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John is visiting Montana for a few days.  We are sharing some of the views along the way.  The area is southwest Montana not far from Yellowstone National Park.

You will never

"have it all together" 

That's like trying to

eat once and for all!

----- Dr. Robert Anthony

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Old Mission - Idaho

The Oldest Building in Idaho
Photo taken May 9th, 2013

From Wikipedia ....

Coeur d' Alene's Old Mission State Park is a state park and National Historic Landmark in North Idaho, USA. It is also known as the Mission of the Sacred Heart or Cataldo Mission. It contains the church itself, the parish house, and the surrounding property. Mission of the Sacred Heart is also the oldest standing building in Idaho.

Read more about the Old Mission in Wikipedia

"Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of finite creatures."  --- Henri Frederic Amiel

Sphinx Mountain Montana

Sphinx is the dome at right.
Madison Mountain Range, Southwest Montana
Late afternoon, mid May, 2013

Info on Sphinx Mountain is here and here.

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear."   --- Baba Ram Dass

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Stuart Mountains

Mount Stuart is in the center.
Photo taken May 9, 2013
on a clear, blue-sky morning.
Be sure to click photo for larger view.

The following is from Wikipedia

Mount Stuart is a mountain in the Cascade Range, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the second highest non-volcanic peak in the state, after Bonanza Peak and tenth-highest overall. Mount Stuart is the highest peak in the Stuart Range, and it is located in the central part of the Washington Cascades, south of Stevens Pass and east of Snoqualmie Pass in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

Mount Stuart was given its name by George B. McClellan on August 26, 1853, in honor of his oldest and best friend, "the late Capt. Jas. Stuart of the Rifles—a gallant soldier & accomplished gentleman."

Mount Stuart is more notable for its local relief than for its absolute elevation. For example, the south face rises 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in just 2 horizontal miles (3.2 km). The northeast and northwest sides of the mountain exhibit similar steep relief. Due to its location away from higher peaks, Mount Stuart has a topographic prominence of 5,354 feet (1,632 m), making it the sixth most prominent in the state. The rock of Mount Stuart is unusually rugged and unstable, due to the extensive jointing of the granite. The north slopes of the mountain shelter three glaciers, including Stuart, Ice Cliff and Sherpa Glaciers from west to east.

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The photo was taken along Interstate 90 about 10 miles west of Ellensburg, Washington.  Camera is the Sony DSC RX100

Thanks, as always, for stopping by John's Island.

Mount Baker

Mount Baker as seen at dawn from Seattle.
6 spotting scope captures merged into a panorama.

The following information is from Wikipedia

Mount Baker (Lummi: Qwú’mə Kwəlshéːn; Nooksack: Kw’eq Smaenit or Kwelshán), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States. Mount Baker has the second-most thermally active crater in the Cascade Range after Mount Saint Helens.  About 31 miles (50 km) due east of the city of Bellingham, Whatcom County, Mount Baker is the youngest volcano in the Mount Baker volcanic field. While volcanism has persisted here for some 1.5 million years, the current glaciated cone is likely no more than 140,000 years old, and possibly no older than 80-90,000 years. Older volcanic edifices have mostly eroded away due to glaciation.

After Mount Rainier, Mount Baker is the most heavily glaciated of the Cascade Range volcanoes; the volume of snow and ice on Mount Baker, 0.43 cu mi (1.79 km3) is greater than that of all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined. It is also one of the snowiest places in the world; in 1999, Mount Baker Ski Area, located 14 km (8.7 mi) to the northeast, set the world record for recorded snowfall in a single season—1,140 in (2,900 cm).

At 10,781 ft (3,286 m), it is the third-highest mountain in Washington State and the fifth-highest in the Cascade Range, if Little Tahoma Peak, a subpeak of Mount Rainier, is not counted.  Located in the Mount Baker Wilderness, it is visible from much of Greater Victoria, Greater Vancouver, and, to the south, from Seattle (and on clear days Tacoma) in Washington.

Indigenous natives have known the mountain for thousands of years, but the first written record of the mountain is from the Spanish. Spanish explorer Gonzalo Lopez de Haro mapped it in 1790 as the Gran Montaña del Carmelo, "Great Mount Carmel". The explorer George Vancouver renamed the mountain for 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker of HMS Discovery, who saw it on April 30, 1792.

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Technical notes:  At sunrise, of course, all we get is an outline of the mountain.  Even so, it's not that common to have clear seeing on these very early (light-wise) mornings when the sunrise is in a more northerly direction and creates the nice outline. The scope is tripod mounted and the camera, the Sony RX100, is not directly connected to the scope, but rather mounted just beind the eyepiece. Getting a sharp focus is a chanllenge, and I'm not sure it was perfect here, but close enough.  In creating the panorama, a little more time on the blending might have produced a picture without the darkness in the top center.  According to Google Earth, the mountain summit is about 84 miles from the scope location in Seattle.  The trees in the foreground are about 2 miles distant.