Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I've been away so much I've accumulated photos far faster than I can edit them. But I've made a super effort and have a set of images for you from Moraine Lake and Larch Valley for your viewing pleasure this weekend. I went up there with my brother- and sister-in-law in late September, and we caught the larches turning just about perfectly. As always when I travel with them, I also will direct you to my brother-in-law's web page, Photoseek.com , where you can see the REALLY good photos. I shared photos from our first stage, in Kananaskis Country , a few weeks ago. Then we moved to Banff NP. Our first hike after moving HQ to Lake Louise campground was to Larch Valley, out of Moraine Lake. It had rained on us the day before, which meant snow in the even slightly higher country, an exciting prospect for the photographers. There is no longer any general parking allowed at Moraine Lake, at least during peak seasons (and yes, late September is a peak season, thanks to the lar...

I'm off again to get more trail time and, with luck, some great photos of one of my special places, the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, you can enjoy these initial shots from my September trip to the Canadian Rockies. We started our trip (the real stuff, not the long drive from Seattle) in the Kananaskis Country, a collection of Provincial Parks east of Banff, but still hanging out in some spectacular mountains. Here are a few highlights from the first few days. For those who like logistics, I was traveling with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. They rented a camper, which gave us a warm place to sit and eat on often chilly (and once or twice wet) days, and provided suitable sleeping accommodations when we were at Lake Louise hard-sided campground later, where tents are not permitted. My little car gave us mobility. On first arriving, I did a quick hike up King Creek Ridge, an excessively steep hike that reminded me that I was no longer at sea level. View SW from the ridge Kananaskis L...

It's the weekend, and time for more eye candy! Back at the very end of August I joined my brother-in-law and his nephew in a 4-night, 5-day backpack on the Timberline Trail around Mt. Hood in Oregon. At about 42 miles, with around 10,000' of up and down (if you think a trail that draws a circle around a mountain stays at the same elevation, think again!), we chose to take our time. We met a startling number of people with a different approach: trail runners doing the whole thing in one day. I admire them and envy them, but my days of imagining I can emulate them are definitely over. Since we started with a four-hour drive down from Seattle, we didn't hit the trail until 2 p.m. the first day. That meant hiking until dinner time to get to a particularly scenic campsite in Paradise Park. The first photo is by my brother-in-law, photographer Tom Dempsey, whose amazing work can be found at Photoseek.com . At the risk of making you lose all interest in my post, his take on the tr...