AMONG THE GIANTS
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 025
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”Hiouchi, California, within the Jedediah Smith National Forest. The clean, living feel of the air in the old growth redwood forest is even more incredible that the sight of these hundreds-feet tall trees and the rays of sunlight shooting through them to the ferns and soft soil below.”
VINEYARDS ABOVE ARTSTOWN
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 024
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”Ashland, Oregon. Taken the day I departed from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, from the rooftop of my hotel. I recommend a trip to Ashland to anyone seeking to nourish their soul.”
CASTLE ROCK REACH
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 023
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”If I had one picture to submit for the contest, this would be it.
Crescent City, California, looking north-northwest from the lighthouse towards the Oregon coast. Just south of the horizon from the California-Oregon border, Castle Rock dominates the rocky coastline of Del Norte County, California. This stretch of coast is too rough for most craft close to shore, and so is home to all manner of seals and the occasional sea lion. Tidepooling is fun and educational, and the hypnotic rhythm of the waves crashing into the rocks creates a delicious salty scent in the air.”
RIFFE LAKE
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 022
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”In an unnamed part of Cowlitz County, Washington you can find this view of Riffe Lake, a man-made reservoir nestled in the Cascades somewhere between Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. The visceral shock of this much green under the sky is part of why the Northwest reminds me so of the forests of northern Wisconsin, except with mountains. I’d love to describe this as smelling and feeling of the dense pine and fir forest, but the fact is it’s a roadside vista along U.S. Highway 12 so the real smell at this exact point is of diesel engine exhaust. But the view is incredible, and if you were to camp here, you’d be far enough away from the highway that it wouldn’t bother you.”
HOW BIG WAS THAT FISH?
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 021
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”Not a super high quality picture here, I admit, but it offers a bit of Northwest flavor. This is a steelhead making her way upstream on the Columbia River to find the cove or lake where she hatched, there to lay her own eggs. They swim in bursts of energy as they move through the fast-moving current, so it’s hard to measure them, but I think she was about 18” long.”
LADDER
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 020
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”When the WPA built the Bonneville Dam more than 85 years ago, salmon ladders were installed so that migratory fish could transit the new structure and keep this vital part of the economy and ecosystem alive, and to honor the government’s obligation to the settled native tribes to preserve an important source of their food and culture. While it’s an imperfect the solution to the disturbance to the environment that the dam causes, it’s a joy to see the fish leap out of the water and make their way upstream, to lay the eggs that will become the next generation of fish.”
RIVER BEND PARADISE
By Erik Gunderson
July, 2025
Number 019
Photo Challenge: Ultra-Wide
”Hiouchi, California. The Smith River is billed by the locals as the world’s third-cleanest river. In truth, I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it is some of the clearest, best-tasting water I’ve encountered anywhere I’ve been. Upriver from here, you can shoot exciting whitewater rapids but this calm stretch affords a wonderful spot for a riverside picnic, a gentle kayak ride in the sun, a jump in to cool off when the afternoon starts to bake your skin, and plenty of time to look up and enjoy the sight of bald eagles, osprey, red-tailed hawks, and vultures soaring overhead, all looking to get the fish out of the river before you can.”
