Gray Butte eclipse viewing
Posted: August 22nd, 2017, 11:25 pm
JAETR - Just another eclipse trip report
With so many reports of huge crowds and epic traffic, in the days coming to the eclipse I wasn't really sure I wanted to travel just for 1-2 minutes of darkness. Glad I went!
Arrived at Gray Butte upper parking area 1:30 am right from Goat Rocks trip (and a short stop home); surprisingly there was still plenty of space to park and to set a tent. I think there were fewer people because it's not near center of totality, but still... Pretty surprising, being only 15 miles from Madras, literally surrounded with tent/bus towns with population probably 10x of the city itself. Another surprise was the normally closed gate to the summit was open - the road is still too rough for my car past the gate but half dozen of larger trucks made it. I just hiked the last ~1400' feet up to the summit. About 50-80 people on the top, pretty tight but not too crowded. Microwave towers didn't really distract from experience, and there was little smoke, mostly down in the valleys and along the Cascades.
Not much to add to what everyone else said - there was noticeable temperature drop the the breeze picked up as the Sun slowly dimmed down. The nice thing was, there's view on all sides (as I wasn't sure looking which way would be better) and the best angle, turned out, was looking west. Incoming shadow was *really* fast - one moment Mt Jefferson turns black, and just a few seconds later it traveled almost 40 miles and was on top of us. Black moon with white corona was really cool. The photos below are not chronologically sorted.
Mt Hood (70 miles away) got just a bit of light, Jefferson and Olallie (38 miles) were black
Three Sisters and some fires not far from Mt Washingon (?)
Three Sisters up close. The light was otherworldly!
Zoom on Mt. Washington
Mt Jeff in the center of this photo (before and after the eclipse, I couldn't see its summit in smoke)
Looking East toward the Sun. With so much happening so quickly, I forgot to answer my own question if one can see the stars during the eclipse? But probably not - while it was relatively dark, it was brighter than full moon night.
And in little more than a minute, the shadow passed as quickly as it came
It was getting smokier quickly later in the day, but luckily it was clear for the eclipse
Nice views despite the smoke; I only visited the area in winter and fall, and now the smell of junipers and sagebrush so so much stronger! Even after a couple hours I was feeling it
There were 3 paragliders on the mountain watching the solstice (I think they jumped from the plane that flew over us earlier in the morning), and when the show was over they took off and rode wind down to the valley
With so many reports of huge crowds and epic traffic, in the days coming to the eclipse I wasn't really sure I wanted to travel just for 1-2 minutes of darkness. Glad I went!
Arrived at Gray Butte upper parking area 1:30 am right from Goat Rocks trip (and a short stop home); surprisingly there was still plenty of space to park and to set a tent. I think there were fewer people because it's not near center of totality, but still... Pretty surprising, being only 15 miles from Madras, literally surrounded with tent/bus towns with population probably 10x of the city itself. Another surprise was the normally closed gate to the summit was open - the road is still too rough for my car past the gate but half dozen of larger trucks made it. I just hiked the last ~1400' feet up to the summit. About 50-80 people on the top, pretty tight but not too crowded. Microwave towers didn't really distract from experience, and there was little smoke, mostly down in the valleys and along the Cascades.
Not much to add to what everyone else said - there was noticeable temperature drop the the breeze picked up as the Sun slowly dimmed down. The nice thing was, there's view on all sides (as I wasn't sure looking which way would be better) and the best angle, turned out, was looking west. Incoming shadow was *really* fast - one moment Mt Jefferson turns black, and just a few seconds later it traveled almost 40 miles and was on top of us. Black moon with white corona was really cool. The photos below are not chronologically sorted.
Mt Hood (70 miles away) got just a bit of light, Jefferson and Olallie (38 miles) were black
Three Sisters and some fires not far from Mt Washingon (?)
Three Sisters up close. The light was otherworldly!
Zoom on Mt. Washington
Mt Jeff in the center of this photo (before and after the eclipse, I couldn't see its summit in smoke)
Looking East toward the Sun. With so much happening so quickly, I forgot to answer my own question if one can see the stars during the eclipse? But probably not - while it was relatively dark, it was brighter than full moon night.
And in little more than a minute, the shadow passed as quickly as it came
It was getting smokier quickly later in the day, but luckily it was clear for the eclipse
Nice views despite the smoke; I only visited the area in winter and fall, and now the smell of junipers and sagebrush so so much stronger! Even after a couple hours I was feeling it
There were 3 paragliders on the mountain watching the solstice (I think they jumped from the plane that flew over us earlier in the morning), and when the show was over they took off and rode wind down to the valley