HOME TRIPS TUTORIALS GEAR STOCK GIFS

September 24, 2009 Murray Hill Fog

This was an insane low fog morning up at Murray Hill. For starters I swore I was seeing flashes on the way up, through the fog. Turned out I was, lightning far north, north of Sioux City. Too bad there was no moon to light the fog with that whole deal.

I'm not a huge fan of walking up Murray Hill in the dark alone. With a moon is one thing, but with no moon it is damn dark. Soon as I was certain it was lightning I was seeing flashing to my north, I set off up the hill. If I really want a shot I will blow off silly fears, like spooky hills in black of night and alone. I just say "go and stop thinking." Once I start to consider chickening out, I simply will chicken out lol. But when I want a shot, I guess I'll overcome. Kind of like, I'll figure out the fears when they get there. And that is what I did as I opened my car door and began to take my stuff out. All about getting started. Grabbed the stuff and kept thinking, just start walking up the trail, go and don't think yet. I about fell over several times, as you literally could not see where you were going and where that damn trail groove was. So much different with a full moon. It's all about keeping busy, then you don't hear anything or think you hear anything. Hearing people talking in the hills right around there the one time, at 3:30 a.m., well doesn't do anything for bravery when alone and sort of in the boonies. That time sucked, as I never heard anything till I was already up there, and it came from back towards where I had walked from. Just like, who the hell is out at 3:30 a.m. other than me here! They were damn close too, like right across the road I parked by.

The storms were so far off and not that great, they aren't even worth posting. The scene to the south was cooler, with fog crashing over that hill down there. It has it swamped out on the far right of it. Right by me here is a damn steep hillside....so steep you'd have a difficult time stopping your slide down it, while grabbing tall grass. Well I'm standing here shooting, no issues yet, when out of nowhere something right by me goes racing away through the grass. If you took a small boulder and rolled it off the edge through the tall grasses, that is what it sounded like. But of course it wasn't a boulder, as there aren't any and it wouldn't just decide to move. Some animal was right there the whole time as it couldn't have got that close to me and me not hear it...not as big as it sounded going down through the grass. So I was like, oh great, that's not what I needed to hear. One of the last times here Tyler, Chris and I heard a whole large pack of Coyotes nearby. Anyway, it was a hair surprising but not overly scary, since it wasn't human and it was going away in a hurry. It was startling being literally right next to me and abrubtly taking off through the grass, with it being so silent up there beforehand. Later the same day, after the sun was up, I could hear something again coming up at me through the tall grass. This grass is taller than you are. I just stood there, trying to look forward through it and down. All the while I could hear something in it coming right at me! I was thinking, a deer is going to pop out 1 foot from my nose any moment now. But it turned and went off another direction.

God how I'd love for this low fog madness stuff to happen when there is a moon out! You could do some crazy things with a camera in that case. But no, it never works out.

Twilight kicking in now and the view south was incredible. Winds had been light but increasing out of the south, soon it was fairly windy.

Fog was evidently being pushed up the hills on the south side of the hill that jets out to the west here, off the right. Pretty amazing sight while it lasted.

Soon all this fog being blown north started to invade the hill I was up on. A few short minutes after the above photo I had no view, other than to be surrounded completely in fog up there.

I patiently waited, hoping the fog would blow off my hill, and eventually it did, resulting in this view.

As I looked west opposite of the sun I could see a bright glory down below(right of center above the hill's shadow).

Storm Tutorial - Understanding Storms
Photography Tutorial - Camera Settings Through Processing
Sky Tracking
Lens Reviews
Stock Photography
Home Contact About Weather Data Space Data Affiliate Disclosure