“Have the train go back one more car-length.”
“See that S-Curve over there? Wait for me to get around that lake and then get it to start around that bend and behind those trees.”
“Oh, and give me smoke. Lots of smoke. With color.”
“Aaaaaand why not - blow the whistles.”
It’s not everyday you get to direct a historic Union Pacific steam engine (or two) to do what you want it to do up and down a stretch of authentic narrow-gauge rail in Gold Rush country, but, well, this wasn’t an every day.
And no, this wasn’t a movie set either.
This was the Sumpter Valley Railroad Photographer’s Weekend, an annual post-season event hosting photographers (or simply history buffs and train enthusiasts) to a weekend designed to cater to their every reasonable (and often-unreasonable) whim.
We basically had our run of two century-old steam engines - a 40-ton Heisler and a 90-ton American Locomotive Company 2-8-2 - that ran along about 7 miles of track between McEwen and Sumpter stations in the Sumpter Valley region of central Oregon, much of which was donated to the region by Union Pacific Railroad in an effort to help preserve and promote its history here.
Essentially, what would happen was, the conductors knew some spots, and if a photographer saw a spot they liked, the train would stop, let us all off, and we can run around to find position, set up, and shoot. And if we didn’t like what we got, we could tell the train to do it all over again.
Yes, tell the TRAIN to do it all over again...
As the conductor said “we’re here to make sure everyone gets the perfect shot, so don’t be shy.”
This was insane.
But I digress.
Fall.
Pacific Northwest.
Being as this is my 3rd autumn here in Portland, Oregon, I am now quite familiar with the incredibly short period of time in between the leaves beginning to change and all of them ending up on the ground, to the dismay (and glee) of property-owners across the region.
Peak autumn color happens fast. VERY fast.
Well, this year, I was just returning from a work trip as the leaves began to change, and was wrapped up in local gigs as they were beginning to peak, and I knew I’d be out of town on another gig as they were at full peak, so while I knew that I’d be missing the height of the color and the season, I knew I had to get at least SOMETHING.
So when my cousin hit me up and told me he needed a little vacation and decided to come to Oregon for a weekend in mid-October to rent an RV and cruise around with no particular agenda in mind, I saw my opening.
HE may not have had an agenda, but I sure as heck did…
Being as this was my only window of opportunity to try to capture something, ANYTHING, to do with Fall color this year, I immediately pulled out my running list of autumn photo opportunities in Oregon. Now it was a matter of steering my cousin in that (or those) directions…
We had 4 days, and we were ready to make the hot damn best of them, so we immediately loaded up the beast, and headed out of Portland, along the 84 through the Columbia River Gorge, about 250 miles towards our first stop - Pendleton, Oregon for our impromptu matching flu shots - naturally...
After we adequately satisfied our hypochondria, we continued on to our 'planned' first stop - the Wallowas in eastern Oregon, right along the border of Idaho.
We rolled in super late, so didn’t get to see much of the range on the way in, but woke up the following morning and decided to hike around the lake and up into the hillside above the town of Joseph to get a solid view of what we were surrounded by. It was appropriately stunning, and overwhelming. While we thought we were in the midst of it, we looked across what is apparently Hell’s Canyon, North America's deepest river gorge, to the other side, where an even more impressive range on the Idaho side stared us in the reality-check. We weren’t going to make it there, that was for certain, and we had to be in Sumpter Valley by 6am the following morning to hop aboard the aforementioned train, but, well, at least we got a taste.
Fall color wasn’t yet near peak, but we chose to take another little hike before we got on the road and I was able to capture an image or two just to prove I was there.
Next stop: Sumpter Valley, for what was the centerpiece of this particular road trip, and the details of which I already described above. Needless to say, for history buffs, train buffs, travel buffs, landscape buffs, and, this particular weekend, photography buffs, this experience is a hidden gem that is well worth the trip out to the middle of nowhere-Oregon. It isn't highly publicized and I would have never even known about it had I not been Googling specifically for fall photo opportunities in Central Oregon. No doubt, if they spent more efforts marketing this experience, it would quickly become a much sought-after destination for photographers, but lucky for us they have yet to realize the gold they sit on, so there were only about 15-20 people on this particular day, giving us the run of the rails.
Do be aware, there’s a fairly disturbing story behind this valley. You’ll see in the gallery below images of a massive dredge. Well, this valley was completely dredged for gold from one end to the other in the first half of the 20th century, which essentially devastated the entire region. You’ll see dredge piles everywhere (as well as a few remaining working gold camps) and it doesn’t take much imagination to understand what that process did to the local ecology and environment. Luckily, it seems that the valley is in the midst of a fruitful recovery, and we did hear stories of native species making their return home in recent decades.
Anyhow, on our final day of this mini road trip, once the train dropped us back at the station, we decided to hop aboard the RV and book it out of Central Oregon and make our way back up along the 84 to the Columbia River Gorge in the direction that led us back towards Portland.
In keeping with the train theme, as night fell upon us just west of Hood River, we unknowingly parked our RV on a site that literally butted up against the railroad tracks. The sights and sounds were fantastic earlier in the day when we were awake and running around with our various photo stuffs and whatnots, but they were not NEARLY as intriguing at 2am. And then 3am. And then 4:30am…
The theme of the final day was the ying to yesterday’s yang - rather than man made madness, we went for nature in all her awe-inspiring facets - a 7 mile hike up and around Multnomah Falls through the forest, along the river, by 4 different waterfalls, and back down the other side at Wahkeena Falls, two of the Gorge’s most spectacular sights.
And that's where we close the book on this one - 4 quick days discovering more stunning corners of this beautiful state.
Here are the images captured in and along the way…
Finally, if you’re finanglin’ for more stuffwhats and thingynots, find me on Instagram: @wasimofnazareth