Twenty One Days

That's right. Twenty one days, and I returned to Vedauwoo. I reshot images of the same places I was at, to see the changes. And everything in those spots HAS changed from the 'Giving it another go' post. Was another nice warm day, mid 70s and cloudless. I'd rather have some clouds. Makes for better photographs!

The meadow has changed a lot. All the grass is brown now, and the fall colors are pretty strong. Last time everything was green.

The waterfall has returned to a 'normal' flow, just the little flow through a notch in the rock. This is what is usually looks like.

And of course the 'rapids' are no more. Just the steady mild flow of water here, on its way to the little waterfall. The big flow, wherever it was from, is gone.

Still an assortment of dragonflys about. Managed to get pretty close to this one. They'll all be gone soon.

These trees kind of struck me. Very fall orange/yellow on one side, a small split through the middle, and still mostly green on the other. Who will win? Neither. Old Man Winter will best them both...

One more shot of the orangish-yellow trees against a cloudless blue sky.

Considering the color, these leaves won't last much longer. Still pretty green in town, I'll have to catch some of those as they change I think. The hills are about to lose most of their color. It'll be October very soon, so when the weather finally decides to change from this ongoing summer pattern, it'll probably slam us hard with the cold and wet stuff.

Falling into line

Hey - it's fall! Doesn't feel much like it though. It's been upper 70s and 80s and dry for weeks now. More on the dry in a moment. Even though the weather feels like summer, the trees know better. And the color change is going on in earnest right now all over the Rockies. So I decided to hit Pole Mountain again.

After my struggle with mud and mosquitoes and such back in July, I hadn't been back. But the long dry spell has changed everything. The mud and the bugs were gone, and the colors were out!

Ordinary scenery along one of the many hiking trails.

Perhaps better personal hygiene might solve this problem. Someone put these signs up recently, not sure why. I went left!

The aspens are turning, along one of my favorite (and usually muddiest) trails out here.

Remember that dry I mentioned? In the distance you can see smoke from the wildfires down west of Loveland, Colorado in this picture.

And not to be outdone, some distance to the north of where I was hiking today, a wildfire broke out. It was under control within a day or two, no major damage. But everything all over the region is dangerously dry from a month and a half of hot dry weather with no rain at all.

Giving it another go

It's September already? Then it must be time to try a hike again! Since I haven't been out since early July, decided the warm, dry weekend weather was telling me I better get a hike in before weather turns again.

So I geared up and headed out to Vedauwoo for the first time this year. And I took some more potent bug repellent just in case!
Fortunately, I didn't need it. No bug problems at all. It was warm, breezy to windy at times, and clear or just partly cloudy. A pretty nice day. Everything is still green, or just getting very faint hints of changing to fall yellows. Couple weeks and its gonna look a lot different. Sad to see that I'm seeing even more brown pines as more of them die thanks to the Pine Beetles.

In one spot is the little stream/falls area. Normally barely running. I would expect just the lightest trickle this time of year. Nope! It was flowing harder than I've ever seen here. Not sure where this water is coming from, but its moving!

This is upstream of the falls, a little rocky 'rapids' area. Water appears out of a culvert pipe here, from somewhere, and it's whitewater!

North Country

Took a trip north to visit some family back in NoDak. Didn't get to see everyone, but some. Kept pretty busy for a 'vacation' mowing grass, cutting down a big tree, cleaning a shed and other 'relaxing' activities.

A quick windmill done as a 'drive-by shooting' in the country

Some stormy weather around while travelling. Missed this one by a little bit.

A morning foggy view of the powerlines and haybales appearing out of the mist.

Just a bit of 'Godbeam' light during a nice sunset.

The city at night. And on the move, apparently!

Drove through Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills on my way back. Stopped at a favorite waterfall of mine and my brother's at Savoy. Really nice and big waterfall, but not high on the tourist list. Which is odd considering its right in the heavy tourist area, and very close to another, smaller but much more 'popular' waterfall. Go figure.

Squish! Smack!

Haven't been out for too many hikes this year - the weather hasn't helped. But decided to go to Pole Mountain for the first time of the year. It was a pretty warm day, after some cool, wet weather. So off I went.

The scenery was about the same. But the bugs were not. They are THICK. Even though I had mosquito repellent, it wasn't helping much. They were killers.

The ground was VERY wet in places too. For July, it was a real mud hole. My shoes were covered with mud after taking a particularly messy trail.

Long story short - between the mud and bugs, I'm gonna give the trails a time out! Later in the season they'll be a lot better.

Red White & Blue

July 4th Independence day again. And a few fireworks are always good. Weather wasn't best - had major rainstorm for couple hours before the show, and the air was still and humid so the smoke really hung in the air. As the show went on it just got foggy looking from all the smoke.

A nice looking triple burst capture.

One of those bigger explosions with sparkly little things running all over the place. It's mostly cropped out but you can see a lot more smoke in te bottom of the photo.

LDOTYBR

Otherwise known as the Longest Day Of The Year Bike Ride!

Summer Solstice today - longest day of the year! Was very humid much of the day, but got quite a bit nicer by this evening. Since I haven't done much cycling lately, had to put a few miles on the two wheeler. Very nice night! Think I only ate one bug!

Will I do a SDOTYBR? Well, that's in December. So, odds they are not so good. But who knows?!

Tramp

Finally got out for my first tramp (hike) of the year. Weather has been making anything outside iffy. And today turned out cooler, windier and cloudier than forecast. But no storms, so it was actually not a bad day.

This rock kind of looks like something you'd tie up a large ship to.

Cactus. These cactus are EVERYWHERE out here. I don't know why there are so many of these cactus here at Curt Gowdy State Park. I haven't seen any in the other nearby hiking spots. But they are thick here. Big spiny ones. Careful where you sit, and step!

Not everything out here is sharp and spiny. Lots of these little butterflies around.

Also lots of rock pillars around in this park. I call this one 'Eddie'

A time exposure shot of the running water heading for the reservoir. Handheld!

The big scenic shot. From way up high, probably the highest point in the park. Or the highest that's on the hiking map anyway. It was a very steep climb near the top.

The feet and legs were pretty tired after a long day of hiking. As was the rest of me! Found a few spots I missed with sunscreen once I got home. So I managed a few small sunburn areas. Good thing there was some cloud cover today!

That's it for this trip. See you next time!

Train!!!!!!!

Your parents always told you to watch for trains.

I found the old ones! As in it was free visit to the UP Train Depot weekend, so I grabbed the camera and went out for my first photo trip in a while. Got a few nice images.

This tanker may have served the Cotton Belt at one time. Now its just sitting and rusting away. Has some sections you can't see cut out of it. So I doubt its ever going to carry a load again.

Here's the mo-pac. I'm not sure what that is, but somebody didn't like it very much. Some rather unflattering writing was scratched into the logo, mostly cropped out of this shot. The car looked like a caboose, but had a platform on either end.

Inside an old cargo car. And it is tilting that much. Had no wheels, and was sinking and leaning into the ground.

I like the rusted old star on the side of a rusted old train car. Lots and lots of old steel and iron rusting away under the Wyoming skies.

How about this for some nice Southern exposure? A fairly decent shape old Southern Pacific passenger car, maybe slated for restoration. There are several restored old steam and diesel engines and a number of restored old passenger cars here. And a few that are in the process.

A black and white of the front of the tender for UP 3985, an old Challenger steam engine that still makes regular special runs, but is currently in the shop for a little maintenance work.

Looks like it's time to get out of the way!

Interesting to go back and look for new things to photograph. Weather was fair, a little cool and breezy. Not a lot of people there this year it didn't seem like - usually kind of crowded.

Out of the Darkness

Not so much for posting lately. Been busy with ebaying and xboxing and other such fun things.

Plus, the weather has been quite uncooperative for cycling. Raining, snowing, windy, too cold. Yeah, I know. Boo Hoo.

Got some photos that are interesting somewhere. If I can get a little more organized maybe I'll post a few!

At least the weather is starting to break out of winter. Though some severe storms and tornadoes today say don't get too used to anything too nice. Since it's getting close to June, I expect it'll suddenly turn to summer and be hot.

Someone sent me this - it's supposed to be the small tornado south of town today, don't know if this was actually it or not. Could be!

That's all for the moment...more to come...sometime soon...