Jim, the current Desolation LO, has many talents. One of them is that he is professional artist and taught drawing at Western Washington University here in Bellingham. He sends me a cool Christmas card each year featuring a painting of his. And each year there is a lookout somewhere in the scene. Also typically [...]
Excellent article today on Jim, the Deso Lookout and the wildfire scene. Wonderful photographs including a night shot with the Milky Way above the lookout. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/on-a-wa-mountain-peak-a-wildfire-lookout-spots-an-uneasy-future bruce
Here are two photos of the Perry Fire this summer taken by Jim Henterly, the Desolation Lookout. Both shots are from early on, the second one is of the blowup on the 3d day -- filling the skies about the Lookout. Luckily the fire was across the lake on the west side but Jim [...]
Today the Seattle Times ran an article on the Western spruce budworm infestation of the North Cascades. Accompanying this was an aerial shot looking north of the east side mountains of Ross Lake You can see the twin spires of Hozomeen and in the center left -- you will see the hump at the [...]
Jim ( the current Deso Lookout in his 10th year ) is quick to reply to my emails. However, I have not heard from him in over a week. I would guess he is already up on Desolation. A staffing scheme in the past has been 10 days on and 4 days off. Though if [...]
On April 19th the University of Idaho is holding a conference on the art and architecture of fire lookouts. You can find a reference to it here-- https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/lookoutconference I love both art and architecture...... I may go and present photos / drawings of my studio modeled on a LO. bruce p.s.--here is my latest [...]
Yikes it is getting busy firewise on the south end of Ross Lake with the fire on the south side of Ruby Mt at 700 acres and growing, and new fires on Sourdough and Pierce ( which are next to each other ). If you are on Instagram ---take a look at : ncascades [...]
Last week on the trail above Ross Lake Resort I met a couple visiting from Germany. Jorg was very knowledgeable about Jack Kerouac and had climbed Matterhorn peak in California some years ago.... He was asking about Desolation Peak and if I understand correctly may have even visited this website. Here is a picture [...]
Upper Lake Chelan has a 12,000+ acre fire burning called the Pioneer Fire. There is a massive response going on with something like 12 helicopters and 700+ firefighters. Here is a photo taken by Jim Henterly ( the Desolation lookout ) of the Pioneer smoke plume from Desolation.....
You will see on the main menu -- a new section on the Sourdough Mountain lookout. I staffed that lookout twice and will be posting some pictures from those days including a painting I did of my first night of the first time.....incredible scene ! Stay tuned -- it will take a month or [...]