Security at Denver International Airport, permanently on hightened alert for the xmas and new years season.
Bound for Salt Lake City, briefly saw the Rocky Mountains from the air for the first time.
Descending towards Salt Lake City.
The Great Salt Lake, and Antelope Island.
Salt Lake City Airport.
Salt Lake City from the Airport, Utah.
Downtown SLC.
Thought for a second I might be flying in this little shiny propeller plane.
Over at Pasco Tri Cities, spotted a Toyota FJ rigged for offroading, finally! Been waiting to see one.
A river salmon chills next to the fish gateway observation window at the McNary Dam.
The McNary Dam.
My mate Clay at the McNary Dam on the Colombia River. It was snowing lightly.
Lots of fish.
Shannon playing basketball for Riverside Pirates.
Shaz making her free throws!
Flare rides in the back on the way to Bull Prairie lake.
Hardman, now a ghost town as the small family farms were absobed by larger corporation farms.
Oregon has a lot of hills.
Snow tubing!
Trevor's turn to ride.
Clay's driving and Trevor fell off.
Shannon and Cory are throwing snowballs at Clay and Trevor.
Bull Prairie Lake, OR.
Dawn and Shannon
I was all amazed at the snow!
Snow covered Jetty on a frozen lake.
Shannon and Cory test out how strong the ice is.
Another message in the snow for my brother :) I walked straight off the end of the jetty onto the lake, it was so cool.
Robyn cuts a hole in the ice with the axe for some ice fishing.
It was several inches thick, kind of in two layers.
I went off exploring around the lake.
It was really quiet, you could hear clumps of snow when they fell off the trees at random.
Dawn's marshmallow smiley.
Toasting frankfurts over the fire on the lake for lunch.
Scooting around a trail on the quad bike.
Clay, Trevor and I headed to Anthony Lakes Ski Resort, here we stopped for a look out from Cabbage Hill.
Cabbage Hill is a mountain pass on I-84 and one of the most feared in the country by truckers for extreme winter conditions; blowing snow and ice.
Near full moon is out.
Cabbage Hill, OR.
Driving towards a town called North Powder on the way to Anthony Lakes ski resort, and some blowing snow looked cool on the road.
Driving to Anthony Lakes in the early morning. Had to fit the chains to the tyres on the way up the mountain, which Clay & I figured out as we'd never done it before.
Look mum, i'm skiing!
Finally, real falling snow!
Trevor, Clay and I. Trevor was snowboarding for the first time, and I was skiing for the firs time.
Anthony Lakes, quiet, and a couple of inches of fresh powder. Easy to find the run all to yourself :)
Hittin the blue runs after a couple hours on the blades.
Christmas morning! I even had a stocking :)
Flare guards the presents.
All of us except Dawn.
Graf got a pistol for xmas. Meanwhile, Shannon got a rifle, scope and everything!
Pouncer sleeps under the blankets with Clay!
The windy Colombia River! On the way downriver towards Washington, which is also the opposite shore, the river being the border.
The weather changed from overcast to clear.
One of the windier places of the world, the gorges section of the Colombia river is famous for kiteboarding.
The weather changed from clear to overcast, and then to snow, and to rain and snow mixed.
Multnomah Falls in Oregon.
The Callow family.
Dawn photographed a drop of water right infront of my face!
There is a weird saying in the US that moss grows on the north side of trees, which is obviously not correct here. It's so wet here, it's classed as rainforest, despite the far northern latitude.
Multnomah Falls, Oregon
Looking down from the bridge.
[album cover]
Multnomah Falls, 542 ft and 69 ft tall, the second largest year-round waterfall in the United States.
Dawn and I by the riverbank at her father's house.
Debris marks the floods that occurred a couple weeks beforehand.
A bunch of flood debris washed up on the river.
This old discontinued railway bridge had been pulled apart only months earlier.
Not everyday you see a big ol hunk of bridge sitting on the ground.
The bridge span wasn't flat on the ground, it stuck up in the air at one end, full of rusting iron and rotten wood. Very weird sight!
Moss photo for mum, never seen anything like it.
Dawn and her sister came with me for a walk to explore.
Dawn's father, Don, has a cosy house in the mountains of Washington.
A tunnel on I-84, and falling snow.
On the way to Pasco Tri-Cities, got a photo of those strange green cliffs.
Much of Oregon is rolling hills, a dry climate.
Clay took me to Callow's Overlook, made in memory of his father.
It's the best lookout for miles!
Clay's father, Mike Callow, died in a light aircraft crash while surveying wildlife over the reserve. It happened only months after the family moved to Boardman.
Another basketball match for Shannon.
Time out, Shannon's coach plans a play.
Grape orchards on the way to Meadows ski resort on the slopes of Mt Hood.
Night skiing at Meadows Ski Resort, Mt Hood Oregon.
It was snowing like crazy.
Night skiing is awesome, the glow from the floodlights goes really far reflecting off the white snow.
Great big flakes coated us on the lifts.
Had a couple of inches on the car when we got back.
Good 2-3 inches in a few hours.
The poplar plantation outside of Boardman.
Lots of trees!
Sunset on 2007. Was a pretty good year :)
Pouncer watching TV with Clay.
Pouncer's getting in on the NYE celebrations!
Denver lights on the return flight.
