Ok, so this wasn’t planned. And by this, I don’t just mean these images or even this trip to Smith Rock State Park in Oregon, but when life hands you ice and snow, you make, eh…slushies?!
I know I’m a little late on this one, being as how these images were taken over Thanksgiving of 2019, but, well, my procrastinatin’ booty figured I couldn’t post this before my Peru trip posts, because, well, it’s sorta connected. What Peru posts am I talking about? Precisely!!! They’re coming…I promise…I promise…DAMNIT I PROMISE!! But as a kick in the gotcha to motivate me to finish those buggers, since there’s been a few adventures since that don’t warrant as many words as the Peruvian saga, figured I may as well share a few of those images before they’re no longer relevant!
Anyhow, it’ll become a bit clearer in due time, but essentially, if weren’t for the wonderful people I met on that Peru trip, specifically one of the tour leaders, Amanda, who happens to be a worldwide alpaca expert judge/breeder/seller/rancher/do-gooder/lover and one of the attendees, who was also an alpaca farmer who had me at hello the day I showed up in Peru that, well, let’s just say, to my delight, became a MUCH bigger part of my life than I could have ever imagined, this particular set would never have happened.
In a nutshell, I was invited to spend Thanksgiving with aforementioned superwoman alpaca judge lady’s family in Bend, Oregon. How do you say no to that? You don’t. You go.
So I went.
The plan was, my new girlfriend (who I also met on that same life-changing Peru trip), who lived in Northern California, would fly up to Portland, and we’d drive to Bend together.
So that’s what we did.
What we didn’t account for was a freak random out-of-nowhere cyclone blizzard that started to hit with heavy snow and absolutely no visibility in the midst of our journey as we were making our way through the Mount Hood Pass in Oregon.
For most from this region, this is no problem.
But being as how I’m still in my junior year as a Pacific Northwesterner, I was driving a Nissan Altima with standard-issue “what’s the cheapest you got” tires, so, this, for me, was a problem!
We finally made it through, white-knuckling the thing the whole time at a riveting -8.5 miles per hour, doing my best to follow in the quickly disappearing tire tracks of whatever vehicle, now long-gone, was in front of me.
Once we got to the hotel, I should have just left the bugger parked there the entire time.
But I didn’t.
We were in Bend for chrissakes.
Plus, part of the purpose of the trip was to give my girlfriend a chance to check up on her alpacas that were being boarded by Amanda on her various properties.
So on a day that we were expecting more snow, I peered out the window of our hotel, saw a singular patch of blue sky, and made the perfectly logical choice to forgo the offer from Amanda to use her all-wheel-drive-snow-tire-equipped truck, instead opting for my Altima.
Smooth move.
Especially while we hit patches of icy road and unforgiving snow in the late afternoon…
I shall offer no more words on the subject, but after a harrowing day of a few near misses and many missed heartbeats, I finally just parked the damn thing at the hotel and left it there for the remainder of our stay.
Anyhow, on the drive back to Portland a few days and several inches of snow-melt later, we were driving by Smith Rock State Park just as the sun began to set, and who and HOW can anyone with a camera addiction possibly resist a snow scene at Smith Rock.
Here are the resulting images from that pit stop.
And yes, I’ll spare you the details on the trip back, including completely botching my detour to try to get around the snow and ending up right back on that same pass from day 1.
Might be time to consider a Subaru…
Also, if you'd like to purchase any of my prints to bring nature into your home since we can't really get out into nature ourselves these days while she rehabilitates herself, check out my brand spankin' new purchase page on my site (also still a work in progress) for canvas prints, art prints, and even greeting cards: the purchase page. During this time of weirdness, 10% of all proceeds will be split between Global Giving’s COVID relief fund , and Ecology in Classrooms & Outdoors (ECO), the non-profit I sit on the board of that brings ecology education to kids in underserved communities.
And to follow along with more of my shenanigans, check me out on Instagram.
