Willow and I finished up our volunteer time in the mountains last week. The fall colors were coming on strong. Weather was a mix of damp and dry days and we had a short snow squall. We enjoyed lots of time on the trails, remembering the times we shared them with Sky. The night sky was illuminated by the waxing gibbous moon. It’s a beautiful season.
It’s a gray day with the feel of snow in the air. Looks like it might be snowing now. I find it hard to say goodbye to fall but it’s time. No more fall colors, no more brisk hikes in the hills. Soon the hills will be snow-covered and I’ll be waxing my skies. Here are a few fall scenes from this month.
We continued north, driving all the way through Yellowstone National Park and ended up at a Forest Service campground just a few miles away from the park boundary. It was a nice place to stay with a string of beaver ponds along a creek and lovely fall colors. There were trails through the sagebrush outside the campground that were perfect for dog walks. Our friends from western Montana, including their dogs, joined us for a few days. The girls and I stayed there for ten days. After so many days of trying to find a good place to camp, it was such a relief to be in a nice place with clean air. The night sky was clear and I could see and photograph the comet again.
The girls and I set off for northern Utah a few weeks ago. We planned to explore the Mirror Lake area, starting from Evanston Wyoming. When we got to Evanston, I learned of a wildfire south of Mirror Lake that had the entire area where we were going to camp and hike, under a level two evacuation notice. We could have driven through but could not stop or camp. Darn. The USFS suggested we try a place about 35 miles east of there. It was not lovely and soon smoke filled the air. We spent one entire afternoon reading books (me) and napping (dogs) inside the camper. It was poisonous outside. After two nights, we started driving north. We spent one night along the Snake River and then continued north towards the Grand Tetons. In Jackson, people were wearing masks to protect them from the smoke. There were fires burning to the east and to the west of the park. We continued north, never seeing the famous mountains. We finally ended up boondocked high on a ridge on USFS land. At that elevation, we were above the worst of the smoke and I was able to see and photograph the famous comet whose name I don’t know.
If you’ve ever walked with an off leash dog, you know that they will go at least twice and probably three times, as far as you. They need to run up there and sniff something and then check in before heading in the other direction to sniff something else. And on and on it goes. Willow is pretty good at checking in and not getting too far away. However, if she finds something to eat, she becomes unresponsive. I don’t know how to solve that training issue.
We were invited to join two friends on an eleven mile hike, up and over a mountain pass with 2000′ of elevation gain. It’s a great hike to do with two cars so you can start at one trailhead and end at the other one. It was a cool and cloudy morning with a forecast that included sunshine and no rain. Hmmm, those forecasts.
There’s been a fair amount of rain recently and we saw many mushrooms of various kinds. Nothing that we wanted to pick and eat. The fall colors were just getting started with a few subalpine larch showing lighter green or yellow. The huckleberry and mountain ash were in full fall color.
When we were about eight miles into the hike, Willow actually sat down on the trail when we stopped. That may be a first – her showing any sign of being tired. But shortly after that, we approached a lake we have visited before and suddenly she was full of energy and anxious to get in the water. After that she knew where we were going and how to find the car. She probably walked/trotted/ran thirty miles or more. We had few sun breaks and even a little bit of rain. So much for weather forecasts.
It was a good day.
My Everyday Photos 