Trail Run with Colorful (and Welcome) Distractions

 My dear husband took the kids Sunday morning so I could go for a trail run. I wanted to check out the Timber Creek-South Fork Baker loop (about 5.5 miles) and see the fall colors before a winter storm arrives in the next couple of days.  I started off on the relatively flat section of the trail, with fall colors around me.

As I climbed up into Timber Creek, the yellows became more brilliant. Although I was trying to run faster than the last time I had run the trail, I had already decided I was going to take photos with my phone whenever I wanted, no matter if that made my time slower. I couldn't really remember my earlier time anyway, so that took a lot of pressure off.

Some of the leaves were off already at the higher elevations.

To my great surprise, I saw people on the trail! I passed these two--what a fun feeling it is to pass someone on the trail, even if I was basically just walking fast because I'm not fast enough to run up switchbacks. I also saw nine backpackers coming down this trail, and two backpackers later, for a total 13 people!

I really liked the sections of trails where leaves covered the winding path. Plus it was a little flatter here, which is always a nice change on a trail that gains and loses 1,800 feet in 5.5 miles.

The meadow at the top was as glorious as I was imagining. The fast-moving clouds allowed for dramatic vistas, including the backside of Wheeler Peak and Jeff Davis.

I veered off the trail for a bit and found these cool aspen trees. I especially like the symmetry.

Sunlight illuminated the top of Pyramid Peak and the aspen grove on the far side of the meadow.

Looking north, there were more great colors.

I had to try for a selfie, you know, to prove I was there. It was really windy in the meadow.

I headed down along South Fork Baker Creek, seeing the colors turn in the riparian veg, too.

The colors were even better on the South Fork Baker side, with so many leaves blanketing the trail.

Yep, this really is the way!

When I came out to the lower meadow, I saw some backpackers enjoying the view and soaking up the sun.

I said a quick hi and kept running.

Till I stopped to take more photos!

Most of the color is due to the quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) leaves, but willows and skunkbush also provided a nice splash of color.

It was a fun run/walk and I was happy to finish in under two hours. Maybe sometime I'll find where I wrote down my earlier times and see how I did. But even if I didn't, it was a great excuse to get outside and enjoy part of our beautiful world.

2016 Great Basin National Park Astronomy Festival

 It's that time of year again--Astronomy Festival! This is the seventh annual event at Great Basin National Park, going from Thursday, September 29 through Saturday, October 1. After school on Thursday we drove up to the park and visited the solar bracelet table. The solar beads turn color when they're out in the sun. We also picked up a copy of the new Junior Ranger Night Explorer booklet. It looks like lots of fun!

Desert Girl shows off her bracelet. And her new haircut!


Then we went to a talk about how to use planispheres. We all learned something new.

The sun peeked out from the clouds, so we used the solar viewing glasses to take a look.

 Then the kids got distracted by picking up and eating pine nuts. They sure are tasty!

Ranger Steve brought out the solar telescope, and we checked out some prominences (little protrusions) coming off the sun. I learned that the sun has big magnetic fields that influence where these prominences occur. (I hope I got that right. I always feel so humbled when learning about astronomy, there's just so much information out there, not to mention the overwhelming scope of how big the universe is!)

We returned in the evening for the ranger talent show. It's always a lot of fun, and I volunteereed to play my trumpet. I thought the theme to the classic Star Trek movie would be a fun song to play. I didn't get a photo of myself, but here are some of the other performers. First up, the Front Porch Pickers, who generally play every Friday night on---are you ready for this??---the front porch!

We heard beautiful singing...

...great guitar playing...

...the kids' rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...

...the Drinking Gourd song...

...a song in French...

...more great guitar playing...

...and some excellent keyboarding.

Then it was time to head down to the picnic area to look through the telescopes. About ten big telescopes were set up, checking out globular clusters M13 (in Hercules) and M22 (in Sagittarius), a binary star system, the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula, and more. 

I overheard someone asking what the Milky Way was, as he had never seen "that cloudy thing" up in the sky. It made me realize how much we take our night skies for granted, living way out in the boonies. Only a couple hundred years ago, everyone saw night skies like this, but in the last couple centuries, light pollution has made it so that people in cities or near cities can't see the wonders beyond our little orb. You'd think we, as intelligent beings, would be able to fix this quickly.

The kids were eager to earn their Milky Way candy bars for looking through telescopes and learning more about the night sky. It was a school night, so we couldn't stay too long. The festival goes on for two more days, with lots of events!

First Snow!

 Last week on the first day of fall, we had a storm, the first storm in a long time (the monsoons kind of skipped us this year). I was doing a kid exchange and was up in Great Basin National Park when we saw a truck stopped at the bottom of the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive with snow on it. I pointed it out to the kids and asked if they wanted to go check out the snow. Desert Boy wasn't too enthusiastic, but Desert Girl thought it was a great idea. So we headed uphill and drove up to about 9,000 feet and started seeing snow on the trees above us. Fortunately not many other people wanted to drive up into the storm, so we could stop frequently and take lots of photos.

The fall colors were glorious, with many hues of yellows and oranges, and reds.

A little past 9,200 feet we reached our first snow. It was obvious that it had come down with some wind. Desert Girl put on a sweatshirt and went out to experience it.

Then she came after me with a snowball!

We kept going up, and the sun peeked out, showing snow-dusted mountains and limber pine silhouettes. I'm sure my pulse rate was up, I was so excited to be there, seeing this gorgeous scenery right in the moment.

I had thought that the wind might have knocked down many of the leaves, but they held on, now coated with a layer of white that made the fall colors even more vibrant.

The road was wet, but not slick. And I kept stopping to take more photos! The one below was one of my favorites.

At one stop, I caught Desert Girl eating some snow.

The snow balanced precariously on the leaves, some of it falling with each wind gust.

The fast moving clouds revealed some blue sky from time to time.

And I couldn't help but try for some artsy photos.

The scene at the Wheeler Peak summit trailhead was dramatic, with the trees drooping from the snow. No one was hiking the trail.

We could barely even see the mountains from there due to the clouds. It probably wouldn't have been that scenic of a hike, as you would be in the clouds most of the time.

We drove on to the Wheeler Peak campground, which was also coated in snow. We drove through to see if there were any campers.

We stopped at a campsite I've been wanting to camp at and found that the wind had knocked off more of the leaves here. As for campers? We didn't see any.

Heading back down, I still wasn't tired of taking photos. The mix of colors was entrancing.

And then we had some frosted vegetation and late afternoon shadows.

The view from Mather Overlook was a bit muted.

That spur-of-the-moment drive has to be one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken. It was just magical. And the photos will let me remember it even longer. I sure was glad I had my good camera with me!

Hope you've enjoyed this eye candy. There are still lots of great fall colors and photogenic moments out there!