Back to Yellow Aster Butte
Each January, I like to sit with a calendar (and my Milky Way Trip Planner) and plan out hiking and backpacking trips for the year. I find this process to be essential, both because it helps me carve out time to be outside during the best times of the year for Milky Way, but also because it helps me make sure I can honor other commitments. With as busy of a schedule as I have, if I don’t do this, the main part of the season passes me by.
It was during this process that I decided I wanted to revisit Yellow Aster Butte in 2022. I’ve written about YAB before, but this time I wanted to visit during prime-time Milky Way season, and also camp. All of my previous trips had just been day trips, and in the fall, so I liked the idea of spending at least one night, and doing so during the summer. I find that revisiting a favorite location like this is a great way to come away with something new. YAB in particular has the wonderful lake basin that offers so much photographic potential. So, I penciled in YAB onto the calendar for a couple of dates mid-week in August, and went about the rest of my year.
By the time those dates in August rolled around, a couple of interesting things happened. First, I had managed to score a couple of permits to do the Rainbow McAlester Loop in North Cascades National Park, which although is a classic, I had only managed to get a permit for doing it in two nights, which is faster than most parties take to complete the trip. Second, we were back in a heat wave, which I had on a previous trip a couple of weeks prior in the same area. And finally, a couple of days before the trip, the aurora forecast looked like it was going to deliver a big solar storm. All of these factors made me change my plan back to YAB - it was a shorter hike, with lakes to cool off in during the heat wave, and a northern view that offered the possibility of the aurora, so off I went!
One thing I found interesting on my trip was that I was being a lot more selective about which photos I was taking. I find that when I hike an area for the first time and during the day, I’ll shoot in more of a documentary style, where I’m less concerned with the light and more concerned with documenting the interesting scenes and portions of trip. Because I had visited before and was staying the night, I had the luxury of both knowing which scenes would be the most interesting, and waiting for the light to be at its best. One of the main places I wanted to photograph was the view of American and Canadian Border Peaks reflected in either Oval Lake or Reflector Lake (both names I made up on a previous trip). I figured that the sunset light would be ideal at this spot, and I was right! It was interesting to watch the light and color change from the long shadows of golden hour to the alpenglow to the last bit of color before the sun disappeared.
American Border Peak nearly perfectly lit up with some beautiful alpenglow.
The light earlier was interesting too, even though it lacked the color of the alpenglow,
After the sun went almost completely down, there was just a little bit of red left, but I thought it was interesting too.
With the sun down, I explored some of the other tarns around the area. One thing I hadn’t anticipated (but should have) was that the angle of the Milky Way related to most of the lakes in the area wouldn’t provide either a clean reflection, or something interesting in the background, like Mt. Baker. The lake basin is oriented almost perfectly north-south, and that time of the year the Milky Way is a bit more to the southwest. This meant that a ridge would block the Milky Way core for many of the lakes. This was something I could have anticipated, but it was also a little tough to visualize fully because of the topography of the area. Some of the lakes are set into a bowl that looks relatively flat on a topo map, but in real life it’s not.
Despite that, below where I was camping was a large lake set in a bowl, which I had aptly named Bowl Lake on a previous trip. The lake was rather large, one of the largest in the area, and the south side of the lake had a relatively unobstructed horizon view. There was a ridge in the shot, but it was far enough away that it wouldn’t interfere too much with the Milky Way. Plus, because the lake was set in a bowl, it was protected from the wind and calm, and as such offered a clean reflection. It was even pretty photogenic just after sunset.
Bowl Lake just after sunset, which seemed like a good spot to set up for Milky Way.
I’ve written about this before, but on trips like these, I often don’t bring my tracking mount, as it’s just too heavy. That was again the case on this trip, especially given that the weather was hot and I was trying to optimize for not dying of heatstroke. That left me with shooting single shot Milky Way, or stacking (all of these techniques are covered in my Milky Way book). This lake actually turned out to be a workable location for both techniques. Sometimes with stacking (just like with tracking), you have to be careful to consider how the Milky Way will move through the scene while you are taking an image. If there are trees or there’s wind or something, it can make the final composite much harder. Here though, the wind was calm and the scene was simple, which made for an easy stack.
Besides the lake, I also found a neat scene with some trees right next to my campsite. My tent is just on the other side of them! It was refreshing to be able to shoot Milky Way without having to walk too far!
Now that I had a couple of Milky Way images in the bag, I decided to focus my attention on the aurora. Strangely enough, I had cell service in camp, and so I was able to monitor the solar wind and aurora data throughout the afternoon and evening. The predicted solar storm had kind of fizzled out by this point, unfortunately. Nevertheless, I decided to see if I could get something. Originally I had wanted to set up on the shores of Oval Lake, as I thought the aurora reflected in the lake with American Border Peak would make for an interesting photo. However, a couple of test shots revealed that the aurora was super weak, and such a shot wouldn’t really work, as the mountains would block most of the aurora. Plus, the moon was about to rise in a few hours, so that would further wash it out.
Given all of that, I elected to set up right next to the trees by my campsite, in a position that was a little bit higher up and might give me a chance to capture something. As an added bonus, since it was right next to my campsite, I decided to just set up and let it run while I went to sleep. In the worst case, I’d have some interesting star trails. What I managed to capture is below, and I think it’s interesting, if not terribly artistic. Lots of planes flying out of Vancouver, and the aurora did make a brief appearance before the moon rose. The reflection is from Oval Lake, and the red light is a fellow camper’s tent who was also trying to capture the northern lights. There’s actually a second tent in the picture too, from a group of young women that arrived really late and set up practically on the trail (always use established campsites).
The next morning I awoke to clouds and the smell of smoke, neither of which was forecast. I don’t mind clouds, but I do mind smoke, especially if I can’t tell where it is coming from. Even my cell service in camp couldn’t tell me, so I decided that being cautious was warranted and packed up to head out. That was a little disappointing, as I had hoped to explore for the rest of the day and either stay another night or come back later in the evening, but that’s also the way it goes sometimes. On the way out though, I managed to grab a couple of cool photos of the clouds and rain (!!!) around Mt. Baker and some really cool “god rays” over the Chiliwack and Silesia River valleys.
In all, despite not having an aurora show, the smoke, the changing weather, the heat wave, and not as many good Milky Way opportunities, I would say it was a successful trip. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and managed to get some images I am happy with. I’m not certain I’d visit here for Milky Way again, except in maybe a really low snow year if the tarns melt out really early in the season, but visiting in the fall is always a great option, and I still want to get that aurora reflected in the lake!