Usually, mid to late August means summertime flowers covering the landscape in Mount Rainier National Park. This year however, summertime arrived about 8 weeks early and the flowers of summer have mostly departed the fields…mostly. There were still some blooms to be found but not only were there a few summer flowers hanging on, but the colors of an early fall have started appearing.

Both the remaining summer flowers and a little of the early color of fall are captured in the photograph above, taken during a glorious morning at one of the Reflection Lakes. The air was crisp and the fog was rolling through the woods and over the lake.

Fog was a major component of my recent trip to Mount Rainier. It dominated the views and continually changed the landscape.

While fog and clouds obscured the sun, it presented a great opportunity to photograph the streams and waterfalls in the park. Nice, even lighting is perfect for compositions that include running water.

Hiking the trails of the Paradise area of Mount Rainier is a good test of your physical conditioning and it provides breath-taking scenery such as this sunset along the Tatoosh mountain range with the yellows and reds of fall starting to appear on the landscape.

One last sunset image taken at the edge of Tipsoo Lake which sits on the eastern edge of Mount Rainier National Park.