~ Carl Sagan
Living in Oregon, at least the western 1/3 of the state, water is pretty much all around. It rains almost 1/2 the year in this part of the state. Our rainy season started early this year and the state prognosticator says its going to be a wet winter. Last winter was fairly dry (of course for us "dry" has a different meaning than say in Las Vegas) but so far this year we're ahead of normal. No complaints here. The early rain put water in the creeks while the autumn leaves are still falling and and the forest is still colorful.
These pictures were all taken along Hwy 58 which follows the Middle Fork of the Willamette (Will-am-ette) River, heading east into the Cascades (and I don't mean the river flows east into the Cascades... talking about Highway 58). The last picture is taken at Salt Creek Falls which drops 286 feet, making it Oregon's second tallest waterfall. I ended up taking some pictures of a couple from Wisconsin (Hi Dan and Sue) out driving and enjoying a really beautiful fall day. Its always fun to play host to out-of-staters, giving them tips on where to go and what to see. Correcting their pronunciation... heh...
I'm not going to get philosophical tonite, I think the images provide a pretty good message. Water is sacred, it can be beautiful and it can be powerful and devastating when it gets moving. We need to honor it, to protect the clean waters we have left. I predicted many many moons ago that some day water would become more expensive than gasoline. I'm sure that prediction was based on hearing others smarter than myself saying something along the same lines but it is coming true. And if we don't smarten up some day we'll be fighting wars over it like we're fighting wars now over oil.
Water for Life
Enjoy the pics, if you want to purchase prints of these images, contact me: allan_e@efn.org
And, as always these images are mine, reprint with permission only, © Allan Erickson, 2007
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