All our journeys include an element of photography. However, some places we go, we go to take pictures.
Summer Lake is one of those places.
Each visit offers a unique experience. Seasons bring shifts in habitat and inhabitants. The wildlife refuge empties and fills over the course of the year with a variety of bird populations.
Some birds are resident, but most of the species we encounter at Summer Lake are only there for a short period.
Resting, feeding, and for some, raising young, before moving on to summer or winter nesting sites.
In addition to wildlife, the refuge sits amid an incredible landscape. Framing the western edge is Winter Rim, a 3000 foot escarpment jutting out of the valley floor. The top can have a cap of snow ,even when it’s shirt sleeve weather at Summer Lake.
To the south is Summer Lake, a marshy flat plain that stretches for miles. Eventually, this runs up against Abert Rim a fault scarp that rises 2500 feet from the valley floor . . . the last 800 a basalt cap.
This landscape is equally as photogenic as the wildlife, and both are the reason we keep coming back here.
