Misty woodland scene captured on a hiking trail in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park near Orick California, USA with maples and fallen leaves.
Nature/outdoor photography often involves a great deal of planning and research in advance to find the right conditions, timing, etc to capture a good image. Sometimes all the planning in the world still isn’t enough. That said, any landscape/nature photographer who tells you they’ve never had a certain degree of just dumb luck is either a far better photographer than yours truly, pulling your leg, or a better photographer than yours truly who’s also pulling your leg). In this particular instance I have to own up to some definite dumb luck. My lovely wife and I went to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park near Orick California hoping to see some Roosevelt Elk bulls sparing in the meadow there. However, my hopes weren’t high as it was raining and I’d heard that the powers-that-be in the park were scheduled to burn the meadow as they do every few years. This turned out to be true as the meadow was still smoking when we got there. Add in the very raining conditions and the elk we did see along our journey were mostly bedded down (and largely in people’s yards). However, what I did not expect at all for early October at sea level was how many glorious patches of wonderful fall color there would be. I found a trailhead with very few cars parked and braved the elements and came away with a couple pretty images. Rainy days are far and away my favorite time to shoot fall colors so I certainly don’t regret the trip down there from our camp in Brookings Oregon that day!
Size: 6234px × 4156px
Location: Orick California, USA.
Photo credit: © Mike Lee / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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