Road to Nature

What can I say about this adventure? Well, let's just get it out of the way........it was stunning. I recently went to the Middle Fork Coquille River and watched as the winter waters rushed along the rocks, while the stealhead salmon made their yearly journey. The river actually starts in the valley where I live. I can remember going down to the river with my Dad to find arrowheads, catch trout, to swim, and to go duck hunting. The area I went to was down the canyon from the valley. The rural fire dept. here is called out quite a lot for accidents down the canyon pass. The highway is steep and very curvy. It follows the middle fork through the mountains. I hiked down to one of the steep areas and found exactly what I was looking for.

These fish intrigue me. They are the most dedicated fish in all the genus. They have the most diverse life and they have the most heart. They start their lives in little tiny streams that get their water flow from the surrounding mountains. Some live in little pools of water that are only about 3ft wide and 2 feet deep. Then they start to migrate like birds. They migrate to the ocean to start their adult lives. Then they migrate back to where they were born. It's amazing the radar they have built inside of them.

The hike down to the river from the road was very steep and quite treacherous. I actually fell and broke my phone. I hurt myself a bit, but it was worth it to get these amazing pictures of the migrating Stealhead. They were jumping in what seemed like 6 minute intervals. I saw so many different fish try to make it up and over the falls. The jump ranges from about 6 feet to about 15 feet depending on the side of the river they try to traverse.

I probably sat there for about 3 hours total to catch these images. The fish are only out of the water for a few seconds. It's really hard to get the focus and framing right in such a short time span. This has been the hardest photography that I have done yet. These guys are really hard to photograph!!! I hope you guys appreciate the few photo's I have to show you. I'm quite proud of these pictures.

The road I walked down was pretty cool too.

This trip was amazing. It was amazing to see wildlife in it's raw form like that and to experience the power of the river. It was also great to find something so rare/hard to photograph.

Thanks so much,

Jdaniel