In early August of 2019, several buddies and I backpacked into Cowlitz Park on Mt. Rainier for a long weekend. The flowers were thick and the vistas spectacular, and the weather even cooperated a time or two.
Our first night in Cowlitz Park we set up camp near a tarn, and after scouting for a few hours I settled on a composition with a lupine foreground. Just as things started to get a bit more interesting, mist came pouring into the scene and I found myself sitting in thick fog. Grumbling under my breath about the unfairness of it all, I packed up and headed back to camp to start supper.
Just as I started to eat, the fog cleared and the sky color started to look promising. For a moment I considered dashing back down the hill, but the lupine was a distance away and I knew there was not time to get there and get set up before the show was over.
This patch of Pink Mountain-heath was only about 50 yards down the slope from camp, so I set supper aside and rushed down to set up this composition. Fog continued, but fortunately let me peek through to the mountain and the sunset behind.