Mike T Studios, Battle Ground, WA (2025)

08/25/2023

This is probably one of the most popular hikes in Glacier National Park and I can understand why. It's only 1.5 miles and about 500' of elevation gain to get to this spot.

08/24/2023

One of my new favorite hikes in Glacier National Park.

The smoke rolled in a bit on this day, but we were still able to ascend 3,700' to get to this incredible view!

08/23/2023

It's impossible to go to Glacier National Park without seeing the famous red vintage 1930s tour buses. I spotted this one driving down Going to the Sun Road and caught a quick hand-held long exposure to capture the movement!

08/21/2023

In case you didn't know it, I was gone for the last 2 weeks on a road trip and it started off with a banger sunset on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park.

08/03/2023

In yesterday's post I said that was the second best hike of last weekend. Here are some of the images from the best hike of the weekend!

08/02/2023

These were some shots from one of the hikes we did last Friday. The funny thing is...this was the second best hike of the weekend.

07/26/2023

Story Time - Last Friday, my good pal here on Instagram, .adventures posted in her caption, "would you rather have noisy camp neighbors all night or have pesky mosquito neighbors?" Well...on Friday evening, Leslie and I found a great camp-spot (image 3). We had pre-prepared some dinner and as soon as we started warming it up, the mosquitoes knew we were there and I immediately started thinking about Elizabeth's 'would you rather.' The mosquitoes were exactly how she described them too...pesky!

About 10 minutes later, just as we were finishing up our dinner, we figured we heard somebody pull in. Actually, we heard multiple vehicles pull in. 2 RV's, a trailer, and a couple other cars. And they parked right next to us for about 30 minutes with their engines on, trying to figure out a good spot to take. As their deliberation came to an end, they decided to take a spot about 150' feet from us. I'm not sure how many people were in this group but it was not small.

At this point, it's about 930 and we wanted to get to bed for an early start in the morning. As they set up, we were fortunate that they were not being too noisy. As time went on though, things changed. After about a half hour, I turned on white noise to help drown them out. I think I slept for a little bit, but I woke up to a blaring bass beating in my ear drums, shaking my entire body. I checked my phone - it was 1:42 AM. That is not okay. I contemplated going over there, however, fortunately quiet hours must be at 2AM because that's when they decided to turn off the music and end karaoke.

So, going back to Elizabeth's question, I would certainly not choose BOTH but I would absolutely 100% choose the pesky mosquitoes.

p.s. my favorite is image number 8!

07/24/2023

This past weekend was the first successful PNW Astrophotography Meetup of the season, despite the fact that only 2 of us (plus Leslie) made it out there! I finally got to meet and he got to shoot astro for the first time. When planning these meetups, my goal is to set locations spread out through the PNW as much as I can. If you are interested in meeting up with some local PNW folks to shoot the stars, let me know and I will add you to the list to let you know about future meetups.These meetups are free and open to anyone of any skill level, even if you just got your first camera! Hope to see you out there!

Leslie & I made a weekend out of this one and headed down Friday night. We did some hiking on Friday evening and Saturday before the meetup. More stories about that to come tomorrow...

07/20/2023

On Monday I posed my favorite image from our weekend hike in Mt Hood. Here are the rest! This trail was great - rewarding viewz throughout. The challenge, however, was the 26,731 of elevation gain. We started hiking at 11pm the night before. We knew it would take approx 24 hrs to complete & we wanted to finish just as it was getting dark the following night.

We set forth with our headlamps, flashlights, & freeze dried teriyaki shrimp quinoa bowls & were on a mission to summit. Once we completed the first 3 miles through the old mine field, we knew we were in for a good night.

Image 1 was the 1st lookout & as you can tell by the photo, we arrived just prior to sunrise. Those golden hues were like nothing I'd seen. We thought to ourselves that this had to be the most beautiful sunrise sky ever. No matter what happened the rest of the trail, it would be worth it.

As we traversed along through the poppy fields, we had to apply our masks to avoid the pollution set fourth from the robust poppy-seed outbreak of 2017 but this was no challenge for us. The next big challenge took place at the 3rd image when we encountered the 72º incline & were forced to use our ropes. The view at the top of that section was great, but that tree was kind of in the way. Damn.

Fortunately, the trail leveled out as we approached image 4 & there was a nice mixture of color in the forest. It was here that we cooked & ate our freeze dried teriyaki shrimp quinoa bowls to give us the much needed energy we craved so we could finish our journey. Image 5 shows where we refilled our canteens. We were fortunate to encounter this stream. We had been mighty parched after using the remainder of our water to cook our freeze dried teriyaki shrimp quinoa bowls.

By the time we approached image 6, we could'nt feel our legs. This pond was at 24,872 feet of elevation & our bodies were struggling for O2. We used our De-Hydrogenizers to remove the 2 hydrogens from the water to create O2 & this probably saved our lives. It was great oxygen.

The final image was the descent. The sun was setting the following day. It was such a beautiful forest. I had a great time on this trail with & hope to do it again soon.

07/17/2023

This hike had been on our list for almost 3 years! Finally got to it & it was extremely rewarding. There were incredible views throughout, mostly panoramic, however, this had to be the most stunning one of all!

Story Time:
After the hike, Leslie, , and I found a place to camp just along the forest roads. I was having a fantastic night sleep until about 3am when I heard a couple cars drive by. Then, I heard more cars drive by. And more...

I wasn't counting cause I was half asleep but I'm guessing I heard 10-15 cars drive by in about a 10 minute span. At first, I figured some people were getting an early start for a sunrise hike but that many cars seemed unusual for the road we were on. As we're dry season, I started to worry that maybe they could have been evacuating. Could a forest fire have developed?

I took a look outside and didn't notice any fire or smoke & there was no smokey smell in the air. At that point, I didn't want to think much of it and tried to get back to sleep.

About 10 minutes later I hear another car drive by. At this point, I think to myself, 'if I they were evacuating, wouldn't they honk their horns to alert others?' LITERALLY 2 seconds later, the next car that drives by is honking their horn continuously down this forest road.

Now, I am concerned. Within the last 20 minutes, approximately 10-15 cars have driven by at 3am with one of them honking their horn, seemingly to alert others. Now I decide to get out & wake Jamieson to see what he thought.

We all stood outside for about 10 minutes trying to decide if we need to evacuate. We still can't see or smell any signs of fire or smoke. The fact that that driver was honking as they were driving by was stuck in my head. Would someone really just do that to be a jerk or were they trying to alert us? The decision was tough but we decided to stay and go back to sleep. I didn't hear another car drive by and we woke in the morning, the air was clear.

This story probably belongs on Unsolved Mysteries and would surely break records for most viewed episode if they decide to pick it up. What do you think was the cause of the 3am forest road traffic???

07/05/2023

This beast was quite fun to photograph. This beautiful waterfall is surrounded by lush forest, greenery, moss, and is just absolutely stunning. One of the many stunning waterfalls in Oregon.

To get here, you'll have to traverse through 29 miles of dense forest, ford 3 swift river crossings, negotiate over some of the worlds largest downed trees, tip-toe around a bear's den, and ascend through Oregon's tallest and most rugged elevation at just under 20,000 feet.

If you do try to get here, keep in mind that at mile 22 is where you will need to be aware of the avalanche zone (if attempting in the winter), so you'll likely have wanted to take your avalanche course.

Continuing onto mile 24 is where it really gets dubious due to the landslide from '83. For this 1/2 mile patch, just take your time and you should be able to make it across. From there, you're pretty much home-free as the last 5 miles is just a steady incline to til you get to the rope section that will advance you right into the ravine to the viewing spot of this wonderful waterfall.

If you plan to try to get to this waterfall, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the journey!

07/03/2023

I can go to the same place 10 times and I'm still take 100 photos.

📍 Watkins Glen

06/26/2023

I need to get back to this place. This is one of my favorite stops when road tripping along the Oregon Coast.

📍 Oregon Coast

06/22/2023

Throwback Thursday Announcement: This is an actual photo - no AI here. Places like this actually exist 😀

📍 Tofino

06/20/2023

Edinburgh is a city like none I've ever seen before.

This first image was inspired by a photo I found from that I tried to recreate (he did it better!).

📍 Edinburgh, Scotland

06/19/2023

With cloudy conditions forcing the PNW Astro Meetup to be cancelled this past weekend, we took a (much needed) weekend to relax & recharge. We did, however, get out for a little adventure on Sunday and it did not dissapoint.

📍 Washington

06/13/2023

My favorite images from this past weekends adventure in Mount Rainier National Park.

Which is your favorite (1-10)?
1. Lonesome Path
2. Mysterious Wanderer (ok, it's Leslie)
3. Watch out for the landslide
4. Camping vibez
5. Moody trail with a fern
6. Peek-a-boo Island
7. Moody trail without a fern
8. Mossy Rocks
9. Moody River
10. Gatorade Lake (that's the actual name of the lake)

Mike T Studios