The summit of Steptoe Butte in Eastern Washington offers jaw-dropping 360° views of the unique Palouse landscape. It is 3,612-feet above sea level but the top of the butte is only about 1,000 feet above the surrounding farm lands. We drove up the corkscrew drive to reach the summit and at the top of the butte there is a small parking lot with cellphone and microwave transmission towers at its edges. The top of the butte is a rather small area so we had unobstructed views of this incredible landscape whichever direction we turned.
The Palouse grows wheat, barley, lentils and chick peas. The farmers rotate crops in the Palouse so the colors of the landscape change with the seasons and the growing stage of the crops. The green in these photographs is the winter wheat that was planted a few months ago and is lush and green now. The browns are harvested fields that are being prepared now for spring crops.
This landscape adventure was unique for me because it was almost entirely, with just a couple of exceptions, a telephoto experience. The only wide angle lens that came out of my bag was a fisheye. I took these with my 300mm on the D850. Before I arrived in the Palouse, I thought I would be using my 24-70 mm lens to show the vastness of the landscape. I was so wrong. I know that lens would show the vastness but it would lose the detail that is so unique and speaks volumes about the Palouse.
