Continuing in my series of local peaks and mountains, I’d be remiss not to include Sawtell Peak among those listed. While the peak itself doesn’t reach 10,000 feet, it’s imposing size at the eastern edge of the Centennial Range makes it stand out as a landmark for miles in many directions. Also referred to as Sawtelle, with an ‘e’ on the end, the peak was named after one of the first settlers to the area, Gilman Sawtell. The summit is used for radio equipment, as can be seen in the photo above. Despite it’s prominence, I’ve had a hard time coming up with images of Sawtell Peak that I’m truly satisfied with, though the frost on the trees in the top image certainly made for an image with a wintery feel and the cold feel of the bottom part of the image contrasts nicely with the warm tones in the top.

I rarely convert images to black and white as it’s a medium I’m not real comfort working in that format, but the above image, taken much later than I would photograph landscape, screamed to be seen in black and white. The foreground road is dirt but in the winter, it’s packed snow and not reliably plowed. A few days after shooting this image, I was back here trying for early light but this stretch of road was covered by wind-blown snow and impassable. Below, as with the Mount Jefferson post, I included a summer scene of Sawtell Peak from near the summit.