Figures in Rock and Lichen
North
Cascades, Washington
I awoke shortly before sunrise on a high mountain saddle. The air was
cool as I peered out the door of my tent to see what awaited me. Panoramas
to the south and west had drawn me to this mountain the day before and
I had hoped to photograph them in the pastel light of dawn. On this
morning however, the terrain laid curiously flat. A pale, filtered light
seeped from the eastern horizon and the mountains, at rest beneath a
veiling gray sky, sprawled in an indistinct mass. The atmosphere was
quiet and somehow soothing.