Up In Smoke

Maybe Cheech and Chong were in the area. More on that in a bit.

Got out for my hike. Weather had been cool, but got nicer today. But it hasn't rained, and the wind was blowing directly from the direction of the fires. So expected some smoke.

Got started, wasn't bad at all. But could see some very thick smoke obscuring horizon to the west. Situation the same as last week - dull muted greens and yellows, with many leaves already gone.

Did find a few colors here and there. This orange-ish tree was about the best I could find all day.

A nice little sort of lean-to shelter of tree branches built by someone over time.

Another three shot pano of a pond. Just like last week.

A pair of deer. Saw two different small groups of deer today. No mooses, elks or other critters unfortunately. Sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't.

As the day went on, the wind changed more to the wrong direction. Though it was harder to see when you're down in the trees, when you come out on a high spot wow was it getting smoky!

Sky a mix of some clouds and a lot of fire smoke. The farther away you could see, the more yellowish and lost in the smoke everything became. And it was really smelling like a campfire.

The sun turned orange/red depending on how much smoke there was. By late afternoon, it was almost orange light. Felt like maybe I was walking on Mars! Perhaps the sky was colorful to make up for the lack of color on the ground? Headed home and washed the smoke out!

Ablaze

Because of the fall colors!

Or not.

This fall has been weird. Its stayed VERY warm and dry. Maybe that's why the fall colors are very disappointing. At least to me. Went out hiking at one of my favorite spots to capture some color. But most of it escaped!

Lots of trees are still green. But its a kind of a dull, fading green. That seems to be turning gray. The trees that are yellow are mostly a very dull yellow. Hardly any bright fall colors anywhere. Just lots of muted colors and green-ish leaves. And other spots where all the leaves are down already. Color me unimpressed! But, lets try to salvage something anyway.

Probably one of my more picturesque shots of the day. A three shot pano of a beaver pond. Not my first choice for areas, but one of the more colorful areas I could find. Looks pretty good. Also, one of the few areas with any standing water. Many of the little marshy ponds here are totally dried up cracked mud.

Lots of rock features here. Lots of people climb those rocks. I just admire them. Picture was just ordinary, but I added an oil paint effect to make it a little different. I think it helped.

Last shot for this post. Just a collection of clouds cruising along the sky. Temps were upper 70s. Pretty nice for late September. On the right of the photo, the haziness is from smoke. There are some forest fires burning farther west and south of here, and smoke was just on the edge of where I was.

Planning to hike next week in my other favorite spot. Check for colors (not expecting much) and hoping there isn't much smoke. Guess we'll know in a week...