I've been fascinated with volcanoes since Mt Saint Helens blew in 1980. Even living in Houston, Texas, over 2,00 miles away, we saw volcanic ash on our vehicles. Now I live within 2 hours from that iconic location. It's one of my favorite hikes and my favorite volcano to photograph.

From Johnston's Ridge, you can capture the Milky Way and it lines up with the volcano. You just have to stay up till 2:00 am to get it. 

Watch my photography adventure video to see how I got this amazing shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ey370URJw.

The PNW is along the ring of fire. In this subduction zone, where the oceanic crust moves under the continental plate of the U.S. This activity has pushed the active volcano up, making it an ultra-prominent mountain peak, looming over Seattle and the surrounding area. 

It's peak reaches over 14,000 ft and has 26 glaciers flowing down from the top. In this Milky Way shot, those glaciers are illuminated only by the star light of suns billions of miles away. If you look closely you can see the headlamps of mountain climbers making their way to the top. 

  Listed as a National Register of Historic Places, Deception Pass Bridge was built in 1934. It's an iconic bridge of the PNW connecting Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island.

After a late night, capturing the Milky Way over Mt Rainier at Suntop fire look-out, I traveled 4 hours North to join friends at Deception Pass. We hiked, hung out and drank by the campfire. I napped a little from 11pm to 12:30am and it was time to wake up and start again. 

I almost didn't do it. I was forcing myself to take advantage of the infrequent opportunity of a new moon. It wasn't fun and I didn't feel the excitement and energy I did the night before. 

I drove the few minutes from the campsite to the bridge. I unenthusiastically set my light up and my camera gear. I found the composition that I liked but had to wait for the Milky Way to MOVE into position. The Milky Way wasn't bright here like it was at Suntop and I almost said screw it and packed up.

But hell I was there so I set my camera to continually shoot and set another alarm for 2:30am, when the Milky Way would be at it's peak. I kicked by and slept for 30 minutes right there on the hill side under the star light. 

At 2:30 am I woke and saw that the Milky Way had moved nicely into position. I tweaked my composition and waited for a car to drive over the bridge, click. 

I got as good as I was going to get under the conditions but at the time I was not impressed. Man, was I nicely surprised once I finally looked at them on my computer!

  Pictured here is the Milky Way over Palouse Falls. This scene is so big that in order to capture it did a vertical pano. I held my camera horizontally and then snapped three frames overlapping the previous one so that they could be stitched together in Lightroom. 

By far the best Milky Way, I've ever taken.