Joey Priola Wilderness Photography

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  • While wandering Long Beach one evening at the tail end of an emotionally-charged day, I scrambled up a rocky headland hoping to escape the thoughts that wouldn't get off my mind, and to watch the sunset in the process. Atop the headland, I discovered an array of pretty spring wildflowers that were basking in the glorious sunshine after a long and wet Pacific Northwest winter. Just as I settled in myself to enjoy the renewing warmth of the sun, a bird began to circle overhead, and together we watched the sun cast the final warm rays of the day over the mighty Pacific. Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia.
    Birds of a Feather
  • A colorful sunrise during a memorable stay on British Columbia's Long Beach, in Pacific Rim National Park.
    May This Last Forever
  • Interesting patterns in the sand along a rocky section of Long Beach at sunset. Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia.
    Delusions
  • A lone starfish clings to the underside of a boulder as it waits for the tide to come in. Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia.
    Tides of Time
  • Two small white flowers found their own little oasis inside a hollowed out piece of driftwood on Long Beach, in British Columbia's Pacific Rim National Park.
    Me & You
  • The post-sunset glow illuminates the ripples of Cedar Creek as it flows towards the Pacific Ocean. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Dragon Scales
  • An iconic Pacific Northwest scene of Punchbowl Falls pouring into a rocky grotto lined with vibrant green mosses and ferns. While inspiring landscapes such as this often seem like permanent fixtures, statues sculpted from the most impervious stone imaginable, we are sometimes reminded just how fragile the Earth is. Due to the careless acts of a group of teenagers, who thoughtlessly tossed firecrackers into Eagle Creek Canyon, the Eagle Creek Wildfire of 2017 ravaged the canyon in which Punchbowl Falls resides, and the full impact of the damage remains to be seen.
    Fragility
  • Waves crash in a chasm in the volcanic rock at Cape Perpetua, Oregon, on a beautiful spring evening. When the waves crash just right, a plume of spray gets shot up through a hole in the rock, as seen in the top center of this photo, and is affectionately known as "spouting horn".
    Sound the Horn
  • A sunflower sea star crawls along the sand in the shallow water of a coastal tide pool in the backcountry of Washington's Olympic National Park. Watching this sea star scuttle about was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had in the wilderness, and I feel incredibly lucky to have had it. Beginning in 2013, the year that I took this photo, a mysterious sea star wasting disease coupled with rising ocean temperatures has virtually wiped the once prolific sunflower sea star out of existence on the North American West Coast.
    Ode to Ned
  • Sea foam and pebbles on Kalaloch Beach. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Fingers Through Your Hair
  • A beautiful winter sunset along the dramatic coast at Rialto Beach. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Fireworks
  • Surf pours down a hole in the shelf of volcanic rock at Cape Perpetua known as “Thor’s Well” while in the background the next wave rolls in. Getting to this vantage point requires good timing and steady nerves, as approaching the Well at higher tides is more or less a suicide mission, and even at lower tides rogue waves can pose a real danger. On the last morning that I camped in the area, the low tide coincided with sunrise, and I lucked out with some beautiful light. Watching the waves crash and then spill down while standing only a few feet away was an exhilarating and memorable experience.
    Go Ask Alice
  • Clouds and the sea glow with beautiful light and colors after a phenomenal sunset. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Afterglow
  • Stars shine over offshore sea stacks on a remote section of coastline in Washington's Olympic National Park. In November of 1920, the Chilean schooner W.J. Pirrie was being towed towards the Washington shores when a brutal storm hit the pair of ships, forcing the towing vessel to abandon the Pirrie. The ship was no match for the tempest, and 18 of the 20 crew members were killed. Their bodies washed up on the very beach where this photo was taken, and if you search in the woods behind the beach, you'll find a plaque memorial for the victims.
    Spirits In the Night
  • A tangle of kelp rests on Shi Shi Beach at sunset, in the shadow of a large sea stack. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Castles and Kelp
  • Receding waves rush back out to sea at Ruby Beach, as a lone sea stack looks towards the pastel twilight sky. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Sunken Wizard
  • The motion of rushing waves seems to mimic the curve of the clouds, during a phenomenal sunset along a deserted stretch of coastline in Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Sunset Swirl
  • Two starfish cling to the rocks and each other as they wait for the tide to come in again. Olympic National park, Washington.
    Holding On
  • Starry skies over my tent along the beautiful coast of Washington's Olympic National Park.
    Spirit of Adventure
  • Quite possibly the most beautiful coastal sunset I’ve ever experienced, taken during one of my all-time favorite backpacking trips (20 miles along the rugged Olympic Coast from Rialto Beach to Ozette Lake). My numb legs from standing in the frigid winter surf to get this perspective were soothed by a driftwood beach fire and some family wine. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Gods of Olympus
  • For one reason or another, it’s just hard to crawl out of bed on some mornings. Or, in the case of the morning this photo was taken, a sleeping bag. It was a damp and chilly dawn on the Washington coast, and I was still feeling weak from a bad stomach bug I’d suffered through the previous week. The thought of rolling over and burrowing deeper into my sleeping bag seemed heavenly, but I knew that I hadn’t traveled here to sleep. I can’t recall when it first happened, but on mornings like this throughout my travels, where the pull of the warmth and comfort of my tent seemed to be stronger than my desire to get out for sunrise, I had begun to recite a mantra of sorts in my head: “if you don’t go, you won’t know.” Maybe the sunrise would be a dud, but if I didn’t get out there to see for myself, I would never know what possibilities I might miss out on. So on this morning, I extracted myself from my cocoon of warmth and comfort, slipped into wet boots and dirty clothes, and struck out for the beach. On summer weekends, Shi Shi Beach can often be lined with hundreds of tents, but on this soggy November morning, the only creatures I shared the beach with were seagulls looking for breakfast. As I wandered about in the dim light of dawn, I could see a faint glow building in the sky to the east, over the forested slopes of the OIympic Peninsula. As the glow intensified, I settled on a composition, and all of a sudden the sky erupted into possibly the most vivid and colorful sunrise that I’ve ever seen. After the show was over, I wandered up and down the beach, admiring the patterns in the sand, the piles of driftwood, and the ceaseless sound of waves heaving against the shore. Eventually I made my way back to my tent, where I joyfully slipped back into my sleeping bag, fully at peace with what I now knew, after I had gone.
    If You Don't Go, You Won't Know
  • Receding waves, caught by pebbles on Kalaloch Beach, streak back towards the sea during a beautiful winter sunrise. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Return to Me
  • Sunset light illuminates sea stacks and weathered rocks on the beach in Washington's Olympic National Park.
    A Moment in the Sun
  • A hardy tree that has somehow managed to grow from the top of a sea stack at Point of the Arches takes in a fantastic November sunrise. Shi Shi Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Roots
  • Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, towers over milky-blue Berg Lake at dusk. Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia.
    Worth the Wait
  • Mount Rainer towers above the clouds as seen from an airplane headed to Seattle. This is why I always choose a window seat when I fly!
    Ascension to the Sun
  • A mountain goat strikes a pose high in the Olympic Mountains on a beautiful summer morning. Mountain goats shed their winter fur every summer, which explains this mountain goat's rather scraggly appearance. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Keeper of the Mountains
  • After a full day of kayaking along the west side of Washington's San Juan Island, my stomach was telling me it was time for a well-deserved burger and beer. Thankfully, something else inside me said that I would regret not heading out to Lime Kiln Lighthouse to watch the sunset as I had originally planned. I got to the lighthouse just in time, and found this spot along the shore where the crashing surf rose and fell. The clouds lifted just enough for the sun to light up the sky with a sunset so good that I forgot all about the burger and beer.
    The Key For Every Door
  • As a teenager obsessed with running track and cross country, Steve Prefontaine was my idol. Hailing from the sleepy lumber town of Coos Bay, Oregon, “Pre” turned the running world on its head with his bravado and quotes like ” to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” until he met his untimely end in 1975 at the age of 24. While it’s been years since I ran my last race, my admiration for Pre lives on. It thus seems fitting that during my post-grad school road trip I was lifted out of the deepest loneliness of my journey while in Coos Bay. <br />
Far from home and feeling lonelier than I ever thought possible, I aimlessly drove the backroads of Central Oregon until I found myself at the coast. After spending a restless night at a deserted campground in Newport, I awoke the next morning to find myself covered in poison oak. Barely able to open my eyes, I headed to the nearest urgent care, which happened to be just up the road in Coos Bay. After getting some meds and pondering my next move, not wanting to return to the suffocating loneliness that was waiting for me back at my campsite, I happened to see a flyer advertising the Prefontaine Memorial Gallery, an exhibit devoted to Steve Prefontaine. I immediately drove over and headed up to the gallery, and was in awe at what I found. The room was filled with countless trophies and medals that Pre had won, and even had some spikes that he had raced in. I spent most of the afternoon poring over each medal, marveling at how this man had made the most of his all too brief life.  By the time I was done in the gallery, I had a renewed vigor and zest for life, and drove back to my campsite eager to explore the very dunes that Pre himself used to train on. Because to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift, and this trip, I realized, was a gift that I just couldn’t sacrifice.
    The Gift
  • A giant fallen tree adorned with moss slowly decays and gives life to the forest that it once towered over. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Giving Back
  • Formed nearly 2000 years ago from lava streaming down the southern flank of Mount St. Helens, Ape Cave is the longest continuous lava tube in the continental US, at 2.5 miles long. Hiking the cave is truly a unique experience. The temperature stays at a constant 42 degrees F, and despite the total darkness, “cave slime” bacteria is able to thrive, and coats the walls of the caves. I used my headlamp to illuminate the twisting passageway of the cave in this photo, and the silver-green color of the walls and “roof” of the cave is actually the aforementioned “cave slime”. Ape Cave, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington.
    Planet of the Apes
  • An abstract rendition of ocean waves, created by moving my camera from side to side during the exposure. Kalaloch Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Sea Dreams
  • A budding rhododendron signals the arrival of spring along the Oregon coast.
    Arrival
  • A collection of colorful pebbles, rounded over time by the action of waves, that I found one morning while exploring the coast near my backcountry campsite. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Pebble Treasure
  • Mount Rainier glows with brilliant sunset light and reflects in a calm backcountry tarn.
    Twice as Nice
  • Balsamroot flowers in Washington's Cascades take in a beautiful view of Mt. Stuart off in the distance.
    True to Your Roots
  • A beautiful Nootka Rose in Washington's North Cascades.
    Renewal
  • A wave crashes against volcanic rock at Cape Perpetua and sprays skyward at sunset.
    Reach For The Sky
  • Pink Monkeyflower lines a creek in Mount Rainier National Park.
    Our Only Plan Is To Improvise
  • A boardwalk leads into the lush and ancient forest on British Columbia’s Meares Island, home to some of the largest and oldest Western Red Cedar trees in the world. The island was almost forever changed in the 1980s, but thanks to protests by the Nuu-chah-nulth and Tofino locals, logging and development of the island was blocked.
    Path of the Righteous
  • Two bald eagles perched high in an evergreen tree survey their surroundings on a gray and drizzly November day in Washington's Olympic National Park.
    Rock Flag & Eagle
  • While backpacking up to Marmot Pass and Buckhorn Mountain, a break in the clouds and forest perfectly framed the aptly named Mount Mystery. Buckhorn Wilderness, Washington.
    Breakout
  • Sol Duc Falls surrounded by fresh spring greens. Olympic National Park, Washington.
    Sol Duc Serenity
  • After a day of backpacking through misty summer rain, the clouds cleared just in time to reveal the glaciated Mount Shuksan massif at sunset. Look closely and you'll see two tents (mine is the yellow one on the left) perched above Lake Ann, ready to spend the night camping in a mountain dream. Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.
    Camping in a Dream
  • A lone larch tree near the Conrad Kain Hut enjoys a glorious view of glaciers and mountains on a perfect October evening. Unlike most conifers, larches change color and lose their needles every autumn, providing a splash of gold to the subalpine zones found in the Canadian Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Bugaboo Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada.
    Chasing Gold
  • A stand of larches at the base of the snowy Rockwall show off their autumn colors. Unlike most conifers, larches change color and lose their needles every autumn, providing a splash of gold to the subalpine zones found in the Canadian Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Kootenay National Park, British Columbia.
    Blending of the Seasons