Not trying to state the obvious, the world is a great big place and it’s getting smaller day by day. I can remember the days of my youth where you could hike in the Tetons and not see another hiker all day. Some time between my senior year of high school and my junior year of college the Tetons turned into a super highway of hikers and gawkers. I can remember my junior year of college when I was coming off Teewinot peak and out of the Teton glacier into Amphitheater Lake. We come over the top of the pass that looks down onto the glacier and into the main area around the lake and you would have through we were some kind of aliens by the way people were looking at us. There was at least 3 dozen people standing around staring at us… The tetons lost something for me that day. The one thing I do have are the photos I took when I was young, when there wasn’t 3 dozen people standing around the lake… As a photographer those are the photos I try to make when I have the opportunities. The photos that will remind people of the places they use to visit. The places untouched and undiscovered…
Snake River – Hell’s Canyon, Spring 2008
When I get the opportunity to see places and things that are pristine and untouched I live by the motto of taking only photos and leaving only foot steps. This weekend I have the privilege to go into the Owhyee desert of Idaho and boat 40 miles of the Bruneau River from Indian Hot Sprints to the Bruneau River Takeout. This section of river can only be boated in the spring when the run-off fills the river bed and there enough water to get a boat down the canyon. I feel extremely lucky that I get to see the river in the pristine and untouched state it is in today. I plan on making photos to share with future generations so they can see the canyon before it turns into the Main Payette (where you drag at least one family to shore because they are in over their head on every trip). Stay tuned for some photos of the Bruneau and those side hikes of places untouched. And remember when you get these opportunities, take only photos, and leave only foot prints…