White Salmon River at BZ Corner

Author's Comments

The first time I followed the sound of the White Salmon down from the road at BZ Corner, I did not expect the color. Glacial rivers are supposed to be milky, opaque, the silt suspended in them turning the water into something closer to jade glass. This one is different. Spring-fed, scoured clean by basalt, the White Salmon runs a turquoise that does not quite look real in photographs and barely looks real in person. The canyon is narrow. The walls are volcanic rock, dark and porous, and the forest crowds in above them so that the light reaching the water has been filtered twice before it arrives. Afternoon is when the canyon opens up to the sun, and the water lights from within in a way that a long exposure can hold but never fully translate. Getting down to river level is a small project. The terrain is loose and rocky and you will want both hands free. Husum Falls is the obvious draw, and watching a kayaker drop the eight feet of class IV is a particular kind of theater, but I find the quieter sections upstream and down more rewarding to photograph. The water moves through pour-overs and seams in the rock that compose themselves naturally when you slow the shutter. Summer is reliable. Spring runs higher and louder. Either works. What I love about this stretch is how few people seem to know it is here in any photographic sense. The kayakers know. The fishermen know. Most everyone else drives the highway above and never hears the river at all.

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