The light at the ends of the day is the very best. A person needs to walk at dusk and get up before the sun rises. We walked every evening amidst the rock formations and Mary and I got up at 4:30 am twice to capture sunrise on the snow-capped Sierras including Mt Whitney. It was magical. Except for that morning when the wind howled and we could not feel our fingers before the sun finally arrived! Still, the scenes before us were breathtaking.
Here it is February already – more than a month into the new year. Time goes by so quickly. I made lots of images last month and finally got around to editing them.
We continue to get lots of snow and it is deep and perfect for winter activities. Ken’s brother stayed for a few days and tried his AT gear and his snowboard on the hill above us. It really made me want to get some back country skis.
Some days have had snow falling all day long and others have been brilliantly sunny. The frost and icicles have been amazing. Of course, we’ve had our share of shoveling. A friend gifted us his used snowblower and it was just in time. We were nearly overwhelmed with the amount of work. And then we had to have a big front loader come in and move the big berms left by the plow guy.
Here is a sampling of images from around our hillside.
Once winter really settles in, the passes out of the valley to the west are closed to traffic and we find ourselves near ‘the end of the road’. So far this year, we haven’t had too much snow but it has been cold enough to freeze many of the lakes. On Sunday we took the drive up to Rainy Pass and walked through the snow to frozen Rainy Lake. Ken took his ice skates and I carried my cameras and we took the dogs too. Of course. It was mid-afternoon by the time we got up there and the sun had dropped behind the North Cascades but it was warmer up high than down here in the valley. This is a weather inversion and has caused a bit of air pollution in some places. It was a fun walk and Sky’s first real experience with snow! Nothing seems to slow her down. We did try to keep her from going to far off-trail for fear she would get stuck and we’d have to rescue her. The ice was pretty rough for skating and Ken thought it might be a little soft too but he gave it a try. The dogs loved running on it and I just tried to keep them all away from each other. Walking back to the car, the alpenglow light on the high peaks was amazing.
We are ever so grateful to live in this beautiful place.
My Everyday Photos 