On a recent sunny day I took a little drive into the eastern Cascade Mountains foothills. I started my drive in the small town of Sisters, where I live, on the edge of the pine forest that dominates this landscape before it opens up to the high desert of Central Oregon. Driving west out of town on some of the backroads, I found some mountain views and more I thought I would share. So follow along as the tour begins.😀🚙
Mt Jefferson
The three shots below are from my first stop on the northern side of Trout Creek Butte. It was a bit of a hazy day and later I will show a picture that shows the reason why.
Mt Jefferson and Black Butte dominate this pic with the tip of Mt Hood visible about 75 miles away.
Mt Washington
Three Fingered Jack
I decided to switch over to my telephoto lens and capture the same shots but a little more zoomed in. 😄
The tip of Mt Hood.
Mt Washington
Three Fingered Jack
Mt Jefferson
A couple panoramas I stitched together in Lightroom to show the immensity of the pine forest on this side of the Cascades.
Click for larger view.
A zoomed shot showing the town of Sisters. Here you can also see the reason for the haze in the distance. This is a pre-scribed burn and we get several of these a year down here.
Prescribed fire is a planned fire; it is also sometimes called a “controlled burn” or “prescribed burn,” and is used to meet management objectives. A prescription is a set of conditions that considers the safety of the public and fire staff, weather, and probability of meeting the burn objectives.
While I understand the necessity for this activity, getting engulfed in smoke on a beautiful day is a little depressing. 🙁
Turning my attention to the west and south The North Sister becomes the dominant player on the stage and the skies a little more blue. 🙂
Back on the road toward The Three Sisters.
A lone pine with a bit of moon just to the right of it.
The North Sister
The South Sister. Unfortunately from this vantage point The Middle Sister is hidden behind The North.
I stopped here to relax awhile in nature. I do this quite often while out in the woods but until recently didn't realize there was a name for it, Forest Bathing.
This Japanese practice is a process of relaxation; known in Japan as shinrin yoku. The simple method of being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature around you whilst breathing deeply can help both adults and children de-stress and boost health and well being in a natural way.
I usually think of it as matching my energy to that of the forest so pretty close to the same. 😀
A little splash of fall color and a last look at The Sisters before heading home.
Please feel free to make comments or ask me any questions about this post.
Photos taken by me, @oldmans, with a Nikon D3300 and some Lightroom post processing.
Please visit Pinmapple to see the locations of some of my other posts.
Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!
I didn't know that being in contact with nature like that had a name in Japan called shinrin yoku. But just today, I was talking to a friend about an interview she saw with a psychologist who just said that one of the good practices to avoid depression was to go for a walk in nature every day.
Beautiful photos of a wonderful landscape. Thank you for sharing 😄
I was watching a show last week on PBS called America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston and it was here in Oregon. They talked about Forest Bathing and its origins and benefits. Never knew that was what I was doing these last few years until last week. 😃
Hiya, @livinguktaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2026.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Thank you!
Hello @oldmans These shots are absolutely stunning. The sharpness and tonality are amazing, and the composition is outstanding.
Have you seen this drone contest?
https://peakd.com/communities/@ocd/ocd-community-boost-contest-s2-8--highlighting-drone-by-ocd
Maybe it's something that you'd be interested in? 😁
Thank you!
It does sound interesting but I am not a drone owner. YET! Hoping to change that sometime soon. 😀
Ok, cool! I hope your dream will come true 🤞
Have a nice day:)
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Hello @oldmans
This is @coquicoin and I'm part of the Silver Bloggers’ Community Team.
Thank you for sharing your excellent post in the Silver Bloggers community! As a special "token" of appreciation for this contribution to our community, it has been upvoted, and curated.