Santa Says

Ho Ho Ho! What do you know? It's time for the Christmas parade again.

Which means hard to get lit up moving subjects at night, and cold temperatures. Both came through! It was chilly, not cold. Low 30s and almost no wind. But parade lasted over an hour, and after standing around that long, it's COLD!

Starting off the parade was a thoroughly restored and tricked out old military Kaiser Jeep truck. With all kinds of modern upgrades. It was being raffled off for charity. I bought a ticket, but didn't win!

The National Guard always brings out this mini KC130 plane that's always lit up. Looks pretty good.

An old tow truck, just kind of different from many of the other entries in the parade.

A old Thunderbird with lots of lights. As always, getting a good shot of anything at night like this is tough because they are almost always moving. I had so many pictures that didn't turn out because they were a little too blurry.

One of the snowplows from the highway department. They always have blades that have been painted up by kids in the local schools with different scenes. This one turned out the best.

Wrapping up with a closeup of the ball they drop at the local news years celebration. A idea they got from the New York celebration I suspect.

All in all it was interesting. Lots of people, the weather was cool but not bad. Despite pushing the camera farther to get better pictures at night, I guess I still need to go farther! Eventually I'll get it. A newer camera would probably make it easier!

Electricity! That's the Ticket!

As in maybe I should get an electric assist mountain bike. I went out again, and took the MTB. Back to the same place I was hiking last week, and cycling at a month ago. Today I rode some, but not all of the trails I hiked last week.

First off, it has changed A LOT! Had some cold and very windy days this past week. Which are really good - for removing leaves from trees in the fall. And they did. Many of the bright and colorful areas a week ago are now nearly bare of leaves. I'm glad I got to see them when I did.

No wildlife sightings either. Bugger!

And I'm on the bike again. Same results as before. I can negotiate the trails (most of the time). Traverse the downhills, flats and small hills. But the big hills leave me wheezing for air. And wishing for an electric bike to drive me up the hills! It's fun, I can cover a lot more ground, but MAN does it get tiring after a while. Especially later in the day.

OK, enough whining. How about a few photos?

A small cluster of trees that still held on to its leaves. They were coming down today as I traveled around. But got a shot of the bike and the fall colors. That's got to be good for something. The color spots were a lot fewer and far between. So I got a lot fewer photos of it.

Recognize this? Look several posts back, about a month ago. Back then, there were a couple trees that were turning, and a bunch of green ones. Now, as you can see, it's pretty much all gone. How brief the season is...

Finishing off with another spot revisited. This is the third time I've shot this spot this season. Previously it was colorful, though had lost some leaves. Now its pretty much bare. Sigh. The fall color season for this year is pretty much over here. Guess it's time to find something else to take photos of! Hope you enjoyed the fall color photos at any rate.

Where the Wild Things Are...

Back for another weekend of hiking and photography. And, as it turns out, I got quite a bit more than just colorful trees today!

Just a squirrel. Nothing too special about that. Other than it was an indication of the day to come. The wildlife is about to get...bigger.

But you didn't think I'd forget about fall colors did you? Of course not! Here's a tall tree, lit up nicely with the sun shining through it. About as bright as the yellow can get!

Walked a trail I haven't been on in a while, but has lots of leafy trees. And lots of colorful spots. And this is the time of year to see them at their best. This is a 3 shot panorama, capturing some more beauty of the season. There's still tons of colorful spots, but there are more bare spots where leaves have all come down. So peak color may have just passed maybe this past week.

Now things are getting interesting. Walking along I never even noticed these deer until I was pretty close. But instead of running off they just sort of stood there looking at me. Considering it is hunting season, I figured they'd be a lot more skittish.

As interesting as the deer were, a couple hundred yards along the trail and I came upon something even more interesting...

A dark shape appeared ahead, I slowed down. And found a young moose in a little beaver pond. Another hiker with a dog was watching it also. I guess it got spooked, as it took off into the trees. But it went the way I was going. So I moved along quietly, and soon came upon -

The whole family! Two young moose (on the left being shy), Mom in the middle behind the tree, and Big Daddy behind her! Wow! That's the most moose I've ever seen out here. And I've never seen a whole family of them. They were a little ways away and watching me. But not too concerned. I watched for a little bit, snapped a few photos, then left them to their day. Pretty neat if I do say so myself!

How about a brightly colored cluster of leaves against a bright blue fall sky? I thought you'd like it!

All in all a fun day. The weather was pretty warm, the colors were still good, and the wildlife surprises were the best part of the day. Next weekend- I may go out. Depends on weather this time of year. Maybe I'll try the bike again.

Side note - yesterday was the Worldwide Photowalk event. Which I WON last year at my location (but didn't win in the main competition. I was robbed!) But there wasn't one this year in my city. So I went out on this hike instead. And considering how good the day was, I think I did better in my Photohike than any Photowalk!

Wintrex? Now?

It's a week (and a day) later. And I'm out for another hike. Gonna get ambitious today! Because the colors are popping. And I'm going to hit BOTH of the primary hiking spots in one day.

I had to wait till Sunday. Because on Friday night it got rather cold and rained in town. While in my hiking areas, there was Wintrex! Otherwise known as snow. Several inches of the nasty stuff! It took much of the day Saturday to warm up melt off. So off I went Sunday with warmer temps and camera at the ready. And expecting to still hit a little snow.

I wasn't disappointed.

Hitting the trails, still an inch of snow. Mostly just in shady areas now. The pathways were muddy. But the day warmed up quickly, and dried out quickly too. Then it was back to good old Fall Color Quest!

A nice little pond I've shot before. There are some bright colors, especially the trees on the left in this shot. Which I'm about to get a lot closer to!

Quite strong reds along with the orange and yellows. I didn't change the colors, that's how they looked. Not too many strong reds with the trees around here, so that was really nice to see!

Getting onto one of my favorite trails with lots of Aspens, I was glad to see I got here in time to capture some nice color before all the leaves come down.

Another spot along the same trail. The leaves were reddish-orange on these really tall Aspens. And looked great! I wish they would look like this a lot more of the year.

A panorama on my way out. I shot this area a couple weeks ago, in a prior post. This is a comparison for colors, which there certainly are more of now than then. Though in spots, the leaves are already gone!

OK, its getting later in the day, time to move on to the next location. Since I didn't have a lot of time I only visited briefly but still got a couple shots.

A silky smooth water pic, just for something different. A handheld (with the help of a large rock) time exposure. Turned out pretty well considering.

Another panorama. Best way to see more color at once. This one is made up of 4 separate photos. Probably close to a 180 degree view.

Well, late in the day, time to call it a day. Start planning next weekend. The colors are hanging around, so I'll be back to find something new again.

See ya then!

More But Different

After a week off, it was time to go out hiking again, but a different spot from last week. Wanted to give the fall colors a little more time to pop out.

And, it seems they did!

A nice shot of a large group of trees turning yellow, still somewhat greenish, framing a rocky hilltop.

A little HDR action of a marshy beaver pond. Makes the weedy masses just under the water really stand out. All murky and mysterious...

As I was hiking, somehow I got off the trail I usually take. And wound up on a different one, which among other things went past the remains of this small old cabin. It still had 4 walls, but no roof. There was a door inside, but it wasn't attached. All the log gaps were gooped up on the inside like it had been used sometime recently. Not sure. Kinda looked like someplace people would occasionally visit, maybe more in the past. There was a little garbage and assorted stuff laying about inside, amongst all the tall weeds.

See, its not all fall colors! Just liked the view of this rather large balanced rock. The left side looks a little like a face to me too. While it seems a really strong wind might knock it off, its probably more stuck there than it seems.

A nice grand vista of fall colors across the valley. Was quite a nice day, and quite colorful as well. This fall has been pretty good for colors and for them hanging around. Certainly better than last year. Get ready for next weekend, cause I'm heading out again!