Introduction

I have been working on a project I call “Scenic Wonders of Doom”, which involves going to as many as I can of the places in Oregon and Washington featuring names that hint at an interesting history. The best part of it is that I get to go to new places, and learn their dark (or sometimes funny) secrets.

The name “Places of Doom” was the working title, so some of you may remember it by that name.

Here are some of the names I am referring to:

Termination Point
Useless Bay
Point No Point
Depression Lake
Damnation Peak
Deadwood
Idiot Creek
Idiotville
Dismal Nitch
Dead Man Cove
Deadman Pass
Poverty Flats Road
Starvation Creek
Murder Creek
Desolation Creek
Dead Ox Creek
Rampage Creek
Desperation Reservoir
Cape Foulweather
Destruction Island
Danger Bay
Suicide Creek
Dead River
Desolation Canyon
Thirsty Creek
Deception Pass
Point Distress
Coffin Butte
Dead Point Creek
Devil’s Punchbowl
Devil’s Lake

Honorable Mention:
Dope Creek
Terrible Tilly
Boiler Bay
Mount Defiance
Horsethief Butte and Horsethief Lake

Some of these places are hard to reach. Others are easy, such as Starvation Creek, and Cape Foulweather.

The best name I have found yet is Deathball Mountain. When I get the pictures to show, I will tell the story.

The Featured Image is the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. More on that later.

Starvation Creek Falls

Starvation Creek’s inclusion in the Scenic Wonders of Doom list is obvious. It gets its name from a winter train trip in the early 1900’s that got stuck in a snow bank. Things were looking bleak while the crew and passengers waited for rescue from Portland. Rest assured that nobody ate anyone this time. The rescue was successful after a week, and the hungry passengers were saved.

Starvation Creek Falls, January 2022

Starvation Creek Falls is stunning in all seasons.

This was the first roll of film that I put through my then new Hasselblad Flexbody. I was able to get the entire scene in focus at f16. It definitely is a different kind of camera. I’m hoping that it will take my photography to another level. We’ll see.

Camera: Hasselbad Flexbody
Lens: 50mm Zeiss Distagon
Film: Ilford Ortho+ developed in 510-Pyro.

Starvation Creek Falls, May 2009

Starvation Creek Falls in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon in May 2009 by Gary Quay

This is the mid portion of Starvation Creek Falls in the Columbia Gorge. You can see some of the top part of the falls in the upper center. It’s one of my favorite locations for photography.

I especially like this waterfall when captured with infrared film.

Camera: Hasselblad 500CM
Lens: 50mm Carl Zeiss
Film: Maco 850 IR developed in Kodak D76.

Starvation Creek Falls, October 2013

This is one of my favorite waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge. I like the way it cascades down from behind that rock on the right. Up and to the left is a large plunge, but it’s hard to get that in a picture with the lower falls, and not have it be too busy.

Deardorff V8
Lens: 240mm Nikkor
Film: Ilford FP4+ developed by Blue Moon Camera

Cape Foulweather

Cape Foulweather got its name from Captain James Cook, who sailed past during its namesake weather. There isn’t much more to say about it other than to bring a sturdy umbrella.

The Oregon Coast is normally a study in clouds, wind, slugs and mushrooms, but on certain days, the sun comes out and temporarily makes Cape Foulweather seem ironically named. I pick good weather to go to the Oregon Coast, so I don’t often get foul weather pictures. In December 2022, however, I went there specifically for the lousy weather.

Cape Foulweather, Oregon During Foul Weather, December 2022

I finally made it to Cape Foulweather during some, well, foul weather in early December to make some picures for a project I’m working on. I got chased back into the car by a downpour shortly after this picture.

I took this picture from the Cape. It depicts Otter Rock, and a stormy Pacific Ocean.

Camera: Hasselblad 500CM
Lens: 80mm Zeiss Planar
Film: Ilford FP4+ developed in 510-Pyro

Otter Rock, Oregon Coast, January 2023

What does Otter Rock have to do with the Scenic Wonders of Doom? In reality, nothing.

However!

The picture contains both a bonafide Scenic Wonder of Doom, and an Honorable Mention. The Granite cliff in the middle of the picture is Cape Foulweather, and that little waterfall on the middleish right is called Dope Creek. Really.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 80mm Nikon F1.8

The Lookout at Cape Foulweather, January 2022

The Cape Foulweather gift shop in fair weather.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 24-85mm NIkon

Deadman Pass

Deadman Pass is a stretch of I-84 near Pendleton, Oregon. It is at the top of the Blue Mountains, and commands some astounding views with precious few places to pull over for a picture. Deadman Pass has a 6% grade at places, making it resemble a ski slope in the winter.

Deadman Pass got its name in an event known as the Bannock Indian Uprising or the Bannock War in Wyoming in 1876. The “Uprising” was mostly a figment of white settlers’ nervous trigger fingers, along with Eastern newspapers’ propensity to embellish anything with blood in it. It ended with a whimper when a group of Buffalo Soldiers, sent to confront the Bannock’s at their reported encampment, found nobody there. They were, in reality, on their reservation getting ready for harvest.

News of the Uprising made its way to Oregon where settlers also got itchy nervous fingers, and some tension with the native population ensued, and a wagon driver was killed on the road, and the name stemmed from that.

Isn’t history fun?

Deadman Pass Road, Pendleton, Oregon, January 2018

Deadman Pass Road, Pendleton, Oregon by Gary Quay

I have struggled to capture this view near Pendleton for years. It’s hard to express the grand scope of the view in a square format single frame image. I may have to take the panoramic camera there this summer.

Camera: hasselblad 500 CM
Lens: 50mm Carl Zeiss
Film: Kodak Ektar 100

Cabbage Hill Panorama, January 2018

This picture somewhat captures the view, but it needs to be viewed much larger than on a computer screen with a 2500 dpi jpeg. I may need to take the Deardorff out there and get one that I can enlarge to 8 feet across.

Idiot Creek

From Roadtrippers.com, “Located just 50 miles from Portland in the Tillamook State Forest just off of Oregon Route 6, sits the ghost town of Idiotville. While the town is now just an eerie patch of land in the middle of the forest, it was once a less-than-thriving mining community that earned its name. Long ago, Idiotville was a logging camp tasked with salvage operations after two straight decades of forest fires that ravaged the Oregon wilderness from 1933 to 1951. Started by sparking steel cables, a discarded cigarette, and possibly even a Japanese weapon, the four massive fires became known as the Tillamook Burn, and were responsible for destroying nearly half a billion dollars worth of lumber. Idiotville, and the nearby Ryan’s Camp, were set up in an attempt to save whatever wood could be salvaged after the blazes. The salvage camp was located far from civilization, taking several days worth of travel just to reach. The operations were hard, sending the lumber workers through burnt, barren fields where the chances of salvage were slim. After a hard day of work, the men would return to their camp covered in soot, their lungs full of ash. Soon, the camp began to be known as Idiotville, because only an idiot would travel so far for such fruitless work, leaving him stranded in the middle of a forest fire’s aftermath. It wasn’t long before the name stuck, appearing on maps even after the town’s work dried up and the buildings disappeared. A nearby stream was even named after the town, and in 1977, Idiot Creek was added to the official United States Board on Geographic Names. Today, Idiotville isn’t much more than a name. No structures remain in the old lumber camp, but it remains a popular destination for hikers who often trek out to the location.”

Idiot Creek is right next to Idiotville. Yup. It’s true.

Idiot Creek, Tillamook County, Oregon

A pleasant little waterfall on Idiot Creek.

Camera: NIkon D810
Lens: 28mm Zeiss Distagon ZF2

Up the Creek at Idiot Creek

Idiot Creek, Tillamook County, Oregon # 2 by Gary Quay

The name says it all.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 28mm Zeiss Distagon ZF2

Dead Point Creek Falls

Near Hood River, Oregon is a places called Punchbowl Falls Park. Not to be confused with Punch Bowl Falls on the Eagle Creek Trail (horrifyingly rendered on the back cover of Styx’s second album), this one is a little smaller, and yet carries with it a hint of doom. There is also a Dead Point Road, and a short hiking trail in the park.

I have only just begun researching Dead Point Creek, but as far as I can tell it was named such because it originates in a section of forest that burned. Everything was dead at that point, so…

Dead Point Creek Falls, Dee, Oregon, January 2023

I took this in January 2023 with a newly purchased Horseman 985 (a 6x9cm camera), and developed it the next day. I like the way it turned out.

Camera: Horseman 985
Lens: 150mm Horseman Super ER
Film: Kodak TMax 400 developed in Rodinal 1:50

Dead Point Falls, Hood River, Oregon, June 2018

Dead Point Falls near Hood River, Oregon, taken in June 2018 by Gary Quay

I took this picture in 2018 when I lived in the area. I go back there when at all possible.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 70-210mm Nikon

Murder Creek

The Willamette Valley is known for its wines and rich, sometimes volcanic, soil. The climate is almost Mediterranean with wet springs and dry summers. Much of the afore-mentioned soil came there via the Missoula Floods, which, at about 600 feet deep, rampaged down the Columbia River at the ends of successive ice ages. You can see other signs of the floods in the large, bus-sized rocks, called “erratics” laying far from where ice and water chiseled them from the bosom of their respective lava flows, and carried them hundreds of miles west. The power of water in vast quantities should never be underestimated.

Murder Creek meanders along wooded banks and farm fields in the Willamette Valley near the town of Albany, Oregon. It got its name from, you guessed it, a murder that happened along it in the mid 1800’s. A man was murdered for having $100.00 on his person while in town, and the murderer was hanged in front of a crowd of 3,000 who came to watch because television had not yet been invented.

Murder Creek, or The Banality of Evil

Murder Creek near Albany, Oregon, by Gary Quay

I chose the subtitle “Banality of Evil” from the book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote because we keep going to tranquil and beautiful places with horrible names and histories.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 28mm Zeiss Distagon ZF2.

Murder Creek, or The Banality of Evil # 2

Number 2 of the images that I took at Murder Creek. Not much of it is accessible because it cuts across private property, however I found this little oasis near the highway. There is a road nearby called Murder Creek Road, but, you guessed it, it never crosses the creek.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 28mm Zeiss Distagon ZF2.

Cape Disappointment

Cape Disappointment gets its name from a British trader named John Meares (for whom Cape Meares is named) who attempted to sail into the Mighty Columbia, but never made it past the Columbia Bar. Another captain beat him through it a few years later.

The Columbia Bar is where fresh water and salt water meet, and neither is too happy about it, even in fair weather. The big container ships sometimes struggle to cross it in foul weather. The bar is not a solid object like a sand bar. It’s a frothing, churning passage of despair that used to eat boats like gummy bears. It is tamed by the size of modern boats and navigation techniques, and also by the Bar Pilots: Specially trained captains who steer vessels across the bar in good weather and bad. If something goes wrong, there is a rescue vessel standing by. It’s the Columbia Bar that turns Cape Disappointment from an Honorable Mention into a Scenic Wonder of Doom.

Cape Disappointment has one of those great place names that express some of the hardships and horrors that abounded during the settling of the West. This one happens to come with a lighthouse, and hundreds of sunken ships.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, February 2022

I never seem to get there during the really big waves, but maybe that’s okay. Being swept out to sea is not on my bucket list.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 150-600mm Tamron

Notes on the Featured Image, “Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, December 2021.”

We drove out to Cape Disappointment in December 2021 to get some lighthouse pictures, and I stumbled onto the location I had been looking for the last couple times I was there. There were no big waves, as the King Tide was onto its last pawn, and the waves weren’t very big. Still, I took a few pictures, and made plans to go back again when the circumstances are right.

I am testing a new developer, which is Photographers Formulary FA-1027. It is supposed to be superior to D76, and yield exquisite negatives. So far, I like what I see. The only post processing I had to do to this negative was set the levels.

Hasselblad 500CM
Lens: 50mm Zeiss Distagon
Film: Fuji Acros II developed in FA-1027

Devil’s Punchbowl

Devil’s Punchbowl was named thus because of the “boiling” look of the water at the bottom during high tides. When the cave roof fell, it left rocky debris at the bottom, so I can kind of see what they were getting at when they named it (whoever “they” were). Still, it’s overly dramatic. At best, I would say it was a Slightly Peeved Imp Punchbowl at best.

There is a Devil’s Lake in Lincoln City, which is a short distance away. Methinks the early settlers were a bit scared of the dark.

Devil's Punchbowl Through Lensbaby Edge 35, January 2023

I wanted to see what a Lensbaby Egde 35 would do to Devil’s Punchbowl on the Oregon Coast. The interior was mostly dark, so I took a picture of the outer lip, and the ocean. The Lensbaby Edge makes it interesting. I like it.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Lensbaby Edge 35

Devil's Punchbowl, Oregon Coast, February 2020

This is all of Devil’s Punchbowl that is visible from behind the fence. Not much of a seething cauldron of damnation if you ask me.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 24-85mm Nikon

That’s it for now.

Scenic Wonders of Doom has been a fun project. I still have many places to go to, and hopefully get some pictures to show. This page will undoubtably grow as I embark on the Scenic Wonders of Doom Tour this Spring and Summer. Next stop is Deception Pass on Whidby Island in Washington.

Thanks for looking!

Gary L. Quay

Scenic Wonders of Doom!