I took this photo of Mt Hood from above a couple of weeks ago.
If you look closely, you can see a couple other volcanoes in the background. Mt Adams, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Rainier are all close by.
The skies were beautiful that day, but at this time of the year they should be more cloudy and gray than blue. Snow accumulation on the mountain has been much lower than usual this season. This has affected winter recreation and all the other businesses associated with it. Fortunately, a recent storm system dumped a lot of snow on Mt Hood.
A view from above east of Steens Mountain, Oregon. I took this photo with my drone on a cool October morning.
I liked the variety of components in this picture. Puffy white clouds, rough mountains, gray-green sagebrush flats, bright green hayfields, and red soil.
All pictures were taken on 1 October 2025 while driving to the top of Steens Mountain, Oregon. The mountain reaches an elevation 9,733 feet. The 52-mile long Steens Mountain Backcountry Byway loop road to the summit is open seasonally.
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On a recent sunny day, I decided to take pictures above Haystack Reservoir in Central Oregon. Here in the High Desert, reservoirs provide much of the water used in local agriculture.
The first photo shows the dam on the reservoir. There’s a fishing dock in the lower right corner. Visitors can catch largemouth bass, crappie, rainbow trout, kokanee, brown trout, and brown bullhead here.
My next picture shows a view towards the west. There’s a corner of the reservoir in the lower right. The snow-covered peak of Mount Jefferson is in the distance.
When I pointed my drone towards the east, it almost looked like a different location. The rising sun is reflected in the reservoir’s waters in a nearly monochrome image.
The next picture shows Mount Jefferson on the left and Mount Hood on the right. Volcanic peaks are ever-present characters in our landscape.
Looking again to the east, the morning light begins to brighten the scene.
Towards the south, you can spot one of the reservoir’s campgrounds. There are three campgrounds at the reservoir, including one specifically for groups.
When I zoomed in a bit above Haystack Reservoir, I saw the Sister’s peaks peeking out from between the hills.
The last picture, is looking to the southeast. Gray Butte is in the middle of the picture. It’s a great place to hike and find gorgeous wildflowers in the spring.
In past years, this and other Central Oregon reservoir levels were low due to an ongoing drought. However, we had higher than average precipitation this winter and there is currently no drought in Oregon.
If I had to feature just one photograph, as this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge suggests, I would choose this one. On our way to Thermopolis, Wyoming, we paused to marvel at the Red Canyon Scenic Overlook, 24 miles south of Lander on Highway 28.
Why did I choose this photo?
It has drama in the skies. Thunderclouds collect in the background and softer cumulus clouds hover in the foreground. The blue skies contrast nicely with the clouds.
It has varying colors of soil and vegetation. Yellow wildflowers carpet the hillsides. The complementary color of the green grass borders the red rock formation. Oxidized iron between and on the rock gives the formation its stunning red color.
It shows geology in action. The ridge on the right side is an area that was uplifted 60 million years ago. The more erodible soil washed away with the action of water, leaving the scene we see today.
It contains straight and curving lines. The curving lines of the valley pull your vision to the horizon. Red Canyon Creek meanders through the middle of the picture. The straight lines of the fence help divide the scene into thirds.
It has a tiny detail with a story behind it. If you look closely, you’ll spot a white cross next to one of the fenceposts. May the people who lost their lives here rest in peace and view this remarkable scene for eternity.
The Red Canyon Scenic Overlook is a beautiful roadside attraction that’s worth stopping for. For more information on the geology of this location, check the Bureau of Land Management site.
I thought it would be fun to take pictures of Cascade sunsets from above to get more comfortable with using my drone. For eight consecutive days, I flew my DJI drone up to an altitude of 100 feet from my backyard. The mountains featured in these photos are approximately 26 miles away, as the crow flies.
These pictures show several volcanoes that are a part of Oregon’s Cascade Mountain Range. I recently featured aerial pictures of them from a closer perspective in another post.
Hope you enjoy these images of our spectacular skies near Bend, Oregon!
Colorful Cascade sunsets
The first photo shows a fiery sky. These are more commonly seen in the winter months around here.
January 23, 2025
The second photo shows a pale yellow background with the clouds floating over the mountains edged in pink.
January 24, 2025
Blue sky sunsets
The third photo shows a mostly clear sky. There appears to be a haze of smoke that could be from one of our prescribed burns in local forests. These controlled fires help prevent bigger fires.
January 25, 2025
The fourth photo shows another clear sky.
January 26, 2025
The fifth photo shows yet another clear sky. This time I took the photo right as the sun was setting over the mountains.
January 27, 2025
The next photo shows… uh, maybe we should pause for musical interlude. This song, Blue Sky & The Painter by Bastille, is one of my current favorites and it’s about blue skies.
Why did I include an interlude? Because there were more days without a single cloud in the sky when the sun set!
The sixth photo shows a clear day as the sun sets.
January 28, 2025
The seventh day shows, you guessed it, another sunny clear day.
January 29, 2025
Based on these photos, is it really true that Bend, Oregon gets 300 days of sunshine a year? Nope. However, we do have 250-260+ days a year that are clear or mostly clear.
Stormy Cascade sunsets
The eighth day shows, HURRAY!, clouds as a storm was moving in. A thick, dark cloud floated ominously over the snow-covered peaks.
The Oregon Cascade Range gets quite a bit of snow each winter. Mount Bachelor (shown on the left in these photos), as I stated in another post, gets over 400 inches of snow a year.
January 30, 2025
I may try taking sunrise pictures for a future post. I just hope that if I do, the clouds will cooperate. 😉
The clouds of Harney County form dramatic backdrops to the High Desert landscapes of eastern Oregon. I just returned from the four-day Harney County Migratory Bird Festival. Though I was there to see birds, the cloud formations draw your eyes to the skies.
Layers of fluffy clouds hung over the Battleground Buttes. Higher elevations in the county received 200% of their normal snowfall. Days before I arrived, these fields were covered with snow.
Battleground Buttes from Greenhouse Lane
Farther south, on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, wispy clouds drifted in the wind. You can see part of Steens Mountain in the background. This 50-mile long mountain dominates the landscape.
