That's not snow, that's ice. All glacier. It's always there. Rainier has more permanent glacial ice than all of the other volcanoes in the Cascades combined.

Some of the waterfalls do flow reliably every year when the snow melts, but if this was about two weeks ago, that was definitely a rare event for sure. Water absolutely everywhere.

I've never seen it clear before mid July.

It's less about what the definition of "ridge" is, and more about the whims of cartographers and those charged with formally registering geographic place names. You can only fit so much on a map before it gets cramped and unreadable, and in this case it's just not a very prominent feature either (despite looking so from certain angles), so it was likely just not deemed significant enough to bother naming.

A lot of place names originate from outdoor recreation communities as well, and summits are often named by climbers. That this ridge isn't recognized by name (other than the specific high points I mentioned previously) within the climbing community is kind of a testament to its relative insignificance.

>The Colonial Peak area is kind of tough. I think the sun is mostly hitting an unnamed mountain behind Colonial Peak.

There's nothing major blocking light from hitting Colonial per se, it's just the orientation of the sun at this time of year. When you're looking at Colonial from the Diablo overlook area, you're looking at the northwest face of the peak. The morning sun hits the southeast face in the winter, so literally the exact opposite side of the mountain. You'll start to see more direct sunlight on that face by April, and it's far more interesting by mid May. Snowfield Peak is the larger one behind Colonial, but it's located southwest of Colonial so it won't block anything at sunrise at all.

> Does that ridge at Washington Pass that's connected to Early Winter Spires and Liberty Bell Mountain not have a name? (last picture)

The high point on that ridge is known as Pica Peak, and the summit immediately south of Early Winters Spires is Blue Lake Peak, but the ridge itself has no formal name. The high summit on the far left in your picture though is Copper Point.

That's Mount Adams.

Yep, that's the spot. Stopped there many times myself.

That's nearby to where your picture was taken, but it's several kilometers to the northwest. Look at the shape of the mountain and compare it to your picture - doesn't line up. Your picture is of Mount Wilson, the mountain visible in the streetview link is Mount Amery.

Either way, this is still along the North Saskatchewan River. The Athabasca River is in Jasper National Park - this is in Banff.

That's the North Saskatchewan River, not the Athabasca.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_flour

Um acktshually I think you mean Dividing Waterfall. adjusts glasses nerdily

This article is definitely trying to sell the sensationalism here. This sort of timber sale by the DNR happens all the time, and it almost always happens in areas where there hasn't been actual old growth for a long, long time.

Far better that it happens somewhere relatively isolated and surrounded by private land and other commercial timber farms than along roads or trails that the public frequents, imo.

Only 50?

Oh yeah there were absolutely some places that were blowing up well before the current gen of social medias. Flickr was responsible for a couple places blowing up back in the early 2010s too. But it didn't get real bad until the last 5 years or so.

It wasn't reddit, it was IG, Facebook, and TikTok. All these places that get ruined due to viral media, it usually starts on those three.

And funny enough, that claim is also outrageously inaccurate as well! Turns out there's a whole lot of those "tallest of" or "biggest in" sort of regional chest-puffing claims floating around because they're great for tourism, but they're often a lot less accurate than most realize.

I suppose it depends on how semantic and nitpicky you want to get. Inspiration is a single plunge in that it's predominantly free-falling, but it does touch the cliff face in places too (picture), similar to what Fall Creek does, but because it's such a small stream it rarely kicks far enough out from the cliff to really fall cleanly.

If the qualifier is 100% free-falling, no-contact-with-the-cliff-at-all then yeah Taughannock does take the title.

It's actually not - despite what signs at the falls and all common sources on the internet may say. It's one of those "facts" that sort of self-perpetuates without getting fact checked. Fall Creek Falls is just a hair over 200 feet tall, and Taughannock Falls is about 6 feet taller. Inspiration Falls in New York has them both beat by over 100 feet though.

Its more or less preserved, the landowner is a timber company, but it's not under threat of being logged because it's way too steep to actually get in there and cut (and they're required by state law to maintain a 500 foot buffer along the river). It's more an issue of public visitation causing liability issues than anything else.

FYI, the landowner has closed off public access to this spot now. Too many people getting into trouble and / or causing problems there.

It largely depends on the weather. I've been there in the winter when the parking lot was full, and I've been in the summer when there are only a handful of people. If the weather is nice (especially if it's warmer), chances are there will be quite a few people there, but you at least won't see as many people in March or November as you will later in the year.

Looks like this map is picking up some trails too. You can clearly see the Wonderland Trail circumnavigating Mt. Rainier. Same deal with the dotted like going halfway around Adams, and you can see the Pacific Crest Trail almost continuously from White Pass all the way to Canada.

105 nanometers seems like it'd be pretty ineffective for landscape photography, but that's just me.

That one is on Kauai.

Definitely stay away from Rialto with this storm coming in. Almost certainty that there will be widowmaker logs being throw around, and they do get to the parking lot. I wouldn't be surprised if the road is closed at Mora even.