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My Adventure: Monumental Art Pilot Rock emerges from the fog on a frozen winter's day. [Photo by Matt Witt] Sunday Aug 20, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Matt Witt for the Mail Tribune The low winter sun lights up mysterious snowy shapes through thick fog. Richly colored wildflowers nearly glow in contrast to intricate patterns of dried-out twigs. Old-growth trees stand tall with trunks so big you can’t begin to get your arms around them. Streams cascade over ancient waterfalls, leaving pools up above that have been home to a special kind of trout for thousands of years. Precarious cliffs provide views of Mount Shasta, Mount McLoughlin, Mount Ashland, the Marble Mountain Wilderness, the Trinity Alps and more. These are a few of the sights my camera lens has taken in as I have photographed in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Much has been said in recent months about the monument in terms of biodiversity, climate change, at-risk species and reconnecting habitat for wildlife mobility, but perhaps not enough about its beauty. Following well established tradition at many other national monuments and parks, the Bureau of Land Management this year for the first time selected three artists-in-residence to explore their vision of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. I was lucky to be one, in addition to painters Darlene Southworth and Mabrie Ormes. As a photographer, I like to focus up close and personal on simple details and uncluttered landscapes, and the monument provides plenty of opportunities for that. On a frigid winter’s day, I snowshoed with my son around to the south side of Pilot Rock. The sky was filled with fog, sometimes producing prism colors as the sun shined through. At just the right moment, the fog eased up to reveal Pilot Rock rising above the snow-covered trees. Many of the other places I have visited were added to the monument in January of this year. In the middle of May, temperatures dropped below freezing on Grizzly Peak, so I headed up there for dawn, only to find a magical scene far beyond my expectations. Thick pure-white frost covered both the stark dead trees left from previous fires and the thick green new growth that is emerging to take their place. It looked like heaven — to a photographer, at least. In late May, wildflowers are in full bloom at the Horseshoe Ranch Wildlife Area, another new part of the monument and the first on the California side of the state line. My favorite area to photograph was an old oak grove reached by walking several miles up Scotch Creek, which comes tumbling down from the Pilot Rock area on the Oregon side. I also revisited the Greensprings Mountain Loop trail, which contours around to views across to Mount Ashland before rejoining the Pacific Crest Trail to head through shady woods to Little Hyatt Lake. Not far from there are old-growth groves in a roadless area that are newly protected by the monument expansion. In summer heat, I accompanied local biologist Michael Parker to hike off-trail to dramatic views of Upper Jenny Creek Falls. Parker’s family has been in this area for six generations, which seemed like a long time until I learned that the falls are estimated to be five million years old and that the special variety of trout that lives above the falls is believed to have been there at least since the end of the Ice Age about 11,000 years ago. By Thursday, Aug. 24, the Trump administration will announce whether it plans to try to abolish this monument, remove protections from parts of it, or leave it as is. But when photographing throughout the monument, all the political gamesmanship in Washington, D.C., seems light years away. What sticks is how lucky we all are to have such beautiful sights right here in our own backyard. — Matt Witt is a photographer and writer in Talent. More images of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument can be seen at MattWittPhotography.com. This year’s artists-in-residence at the monument will have a month-long exhibit upstairs at the Ashland Art Center beginning Friday, Sept. 1, from 5 to 8 p.m.