One of our favorite back country touring areas is in the Texas Hill country south of Emigrant Gap, Placer County. When we have a weather front move in, or thunderstorms forecast, this is the area we most often go for photography because of the clouds in the canyons. One of our favorite spots in the old lookout site at Big Valley Bluff. Here is Shirley shooting into the Royal Gorge of the N.F. of the American River during a thunderstorm this summer.