I'm a little late in getting this trip report written and photo process, but here goes. The photos aren't exactly in sync with the text. Click on the photo to see a larger copy of the image.





When I left the lowlands of the South Puget Sound this morning, it was raining fairly hard. This would be my first official autumn outing. As I made my way past Enumclaw, Washington along State Route 410, I could see that maple leaves were turning colors but not yet for the alder trees.





Once past the community of Greenwater, I made the turn onto to Forest Road 70 (Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest). As I climbed out of the valley of the Greenwater River, the clouds were breaking up and the sun was peaking through. Even though I love the sunshine, I was hoping for overcast skies to capture the early autumn colors.





I arrived at Pyramid Pass (via FR 7080) at about noon. The clouds were at the level of the surrounding peaks (Pyramid Peak). I drove down a side road from this location and had a quick lunch before proceeding into the Little Naches River valley to the east.





Heading East from Pyramid Pass, the road changes to Forest Road 1914 (Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest) as you enter into Kittitas County. It had been awhile since I was actually in Eastern Washington. Even though most people think of the sagebrush and farmlands, the east slopes of the Washington Cascades is primarily forestlands. From a photographic perspective, I enjoy how there is less underbrush on the eastside, making for cleaner, less distracting images.





Eventually, as you drive down the valley of the Little Naches River, the gravel road is left behind and meets up with the paved FR19 passes into Yakima County. By this time of the afternoon, there were fast moving occasional showers with sun breaks. This meant, as I was photographing at various points along the river that I only had to wait a few minutes before the lighting conditions would change.

After multiple stops capturing photographs along the Little Naches River, I eventually made it back to State Route 410 around 4:00 PM. Since I still had daylight, I headed off towards Bumping Lake (to be continued).

Originally posted at http://www.stevebisig.com/early-autu...shington-2016/