Dave Johnston
Well-Known Member
Seneca Rocks in West Virginia is an iconic cliff formation where fins of resistant sandstone layer jut several hundred feet vertically out of the hills below North Fork Mountain. Several billion pictures, by everyone from casual tourists to professionals, have been taken from its front, west, side, which is part of the National Forest's Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. But it is rare to see pictures taken from the back, east side, as it is all private property and pretty explicitly posted. However, as it happens one of the slackliners from our "shoot the moon" project last year purchased part of the land back there, including a patch of steep open field that I had identified on Google Earth as a good potential viewpoint. This past weekend he held a big shindig for slackliners all over the east, and I was able to get access to this field.
I could only be there in the late afternoon and evening, but as it happens TPE told me that the sun would set right through Gunsight Notch from a certain position in that field. I was able to find that spot and luckily it had a clear view (there were spotty pines and cedars all through the field). Then, about an hour before sunset, the rain came. These were those popup thunderstorms that come out of nowhere and then stay in the same spot for a long time. I was always on the edge of it, so I didn't have a downpour, but an unrelenting moderate rainfall. There was also a storm over the mountain on the other side of the rocks, but as sunset approached it cleared to the west, and the sun shone brightly beyond the rocks. The sun did exactly what it was supposed to do, and descended down the edge of the notch. I kept shooting in the rain, even though that obscured and softened the view of the rocks themselves, about 2300 feet away. Just as the sun hit the bottom of the notch I was able to catch a good sunburst, and was able to pull enough detail out of the foreground to at least see what the rocks are all about.
Down in the valley to the west they got a bright double rainbow over the rocks, and I am sure another million or so images were made of it. But I was IN the rainbow, and at least was able to get a shot from a more seldom-seen view!
Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Dave
I could only be there in the late afternoon and evening, but as it happens TPE told me that the sun would set right through Gunsight Notch from a certain position in that field. I was able to find that spot and luckily it had a clear view (there were spotty pines and cedars all through the field). Then, about an hour before sunset, the rain came. These were those popup thunderstorms that come out of nowhere and then stay in the same spot for a long time. I was always on the edge of it, so I didn't have a downpour, but an unrelenting moderate rainfall. There was also a storm over the mountain on the other side of the rocks, but as sunset approached it cleared to the west, and the sun shone brightly beyond the rocks. The sun did exactly what it was supposed to do, and descended down the edge of the notch. I kept shooting in the rain, even though that obscured and softened the view of the rocks themselves, about 2300 feet away. Just as the sun hit the bottom of the notch I was able to catch a good sunburst, and was able to pull enough detail out of the foreground to at least see what the rocks are all about.
Down in the valley to the west they got a bright double rainbow over the rocks, and I am sure another million or so images were made of it. But I was IN the rainbow, and at least was able to get a shot from a more seldom-seen view!
Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Dave
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