The View from Steptoe Butte - Palouse Area, Washington

From Photo Sanity

The Palouse Area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palouse) is in the south eastern corner of Washington and north central Idaho. It is one of the biggest wheat and barley growing areas in the United States. It is a wonderful place to photograph at any time of year, but, springtime is my favorite. There are a couple buttes from which you can get a better view of the area. The photo above was taken close to sunset from Steptoe Butte.

From Photo Sanity

Not only does the Palouse provide wonderful graphics to photograph, there are a many wonderful barns to photograph as well. I will post some of those in later blogs.

If you go to Steptoe Butte bring a jacket, a long lense and a sturdy tripod, the wind rips pretty well through there. There are various places to stop along the windy road to the summit but be sure to pull off the road all the way if you do stop as the locals drive the road pretty fast. At the summit there are some radio towers you will have to work around but there is a restroom in case you need it.

Warning to people who don't like heights, you won't like this road as you get close to the top as there are no guard rails and the drop off is pretty steep.

Watching the play of color across the fields from Steptoe during sunrise or sunset is a treat as the rolling hills provide ever changing patterns. Local photography groups even paint some barns to add just a touch of red in the photos if you look in the right direction ( Not in this photo).

Springtime green seems to be late May to mid June. Harvest time is end of July to early August.

I will post more pictures of the Palouse in future blogs, seeing just a couple photos from Steptoe doesn't do justice to the place.