Notes To My Mother

Looming 14,179 feet high, Mount Shasta can be seen miles and miles away on a clear day as you drive north on highway 5.  Mount Shastina is a satellite cone of Mr. Shasta, located on Shasta's west shoulder. Standing at 12,335 ft, Shastina would be the third highest volcanic peak in the Cascade Range, after Mount Rainier and Mount Shasta.  As the golden hour approaches the clouds hovering around Mt. Shasta begin to display their evening glory. One of my goals on this trip was to capture the Milky Way over Mount Shasta.  The developing clouds at sundown made for a nice sunset but I was beginning to doubt whether or not I would be able to get a good view of the Milky Way. I knew that it was not unusual in this mountain location to have clouds in the daytime and by the time full darkness arrives they are gone.  That happened on this night and the galactic core became visible just above and to the right of Mount Shasta.  An interesting thing happened as I was setting ...

Last year my grandson, Levi Davis-Lundblad, and I went to Mt. Shasta to see if we could get some images of the Milky Way over the mountain. We stayed just north of Weed and went exploring. We were looking for good views of the mountain and instead found a wonderful sculpture garden dedicated to veterans of war. It is located about 11 miles north of Weed on highway 97. We switched gears and dedicated our limited time to shooting the sculptures at night with the stars as our backdrop. The sculpture above is titled "Why?" and represents the upper portion of the work. "Nurses Never Sleep" is dedicated to all of the nurses who have served during wartime. "The Flute Player"During times of war a flutist were used to communicate with the troops as the sound would carry much better than the human voice. To all veterans Photo by Levi Davis-Lundblad. I am planning to return to this area during the dark skies in June to see if I can capture that image of the Milky Way...