Smoky layers and dead trees

 

The weather was great for us in Colorado, up until the day before the big snow storm. The wind shifted then and we were subjected to a day filled with smoke from Colorado's fires (and maybe even some from California?). Fortunately the storm blew most of that away, but not all of it. On two hikes we took post-storm the scenery was nice, but definitely impacted by the fires still burning. Above is a view out west from the Divide; on a clear day, you can see all the way to the San Juans on the western border of Colorado, but not today.

However, I was somewhat entranced by the hazy prospects. There's something lovely, in a mysterious kind of way, with the layers of mountains receding into the distance. Here are some more of the many photos I snapped of this phenomenon...

another look west, at Tomichi Dome in the middle distance...

...and a view east: Mt. Taylor close enough to show up well...

...and looking south toward Ouray and Chipeta

Unfortunately, some of the closer-at-hand scenery wasn't as pretty. The damage done by various species of beetles—damage I've documented for you before—is definitely getting worse. Here's an example, framing some more layers...

...and here's some more...

someone's old nest is exposed here

Some more shocking evidence of this problem was visible in the immediate neighborhood of the Monarch Crest gift shop, at the beginning of one of our favorite trails...

nothing you can do but take them down

Right at the east end of the parking lot it's stunningly bad:

The carnage was all around us, at least during portions of our hikes...

There was plenty of positives from our hikes, though, and I'll show you some of that side of things next time.

Wordless Wednesday: have a seat

 

Wordless Wednesday: Nessie on deck!

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

 

No, I don't mean it's a surprise that I'm blogging again after a long, pandemic-ennui-based hiatus. Although I suppose it might be, for my [dozens?] of faithful readers.

What made me dig into the memory banks for Gomer Pyle's tagline was the very surprising major snowstorm that we lived through on our recent brief trip to Colorado. The wet cold front that came out of nowhere was a relief to the state's firefighters, but a complete surprise to us. And it could have been a serious problem. Henry and his friends got off the river just about 12 hours before it hit, and he was safely with us in our cozy cabin when the white stuff starting coming down in earnest and the temperature plummeted. 

At the storm's peak, the wind was so strong, and the flakes so thick, that globs were pasted on the big window in our mudroom, a phenomenon rarely seen even in winter:

At first, there was just a little of the white stuff, and it made some beautifully delicate snow sculptures as it stuck to the weeds coming up in the driveway...

isn't that pretty?!

But, then, it just kept coming! For two whole days! This is what our deck ended up looking like:

One of the neatest effects was the pattern the snow made on our deck railing (the story of which you can review here)...

...not to mention the cute peaks and valleys on the deck surface itself...

Here's a closer look, followed by the differential melting that followed:

The wider-view scenery was also spectacular, however unexpected. Here's the view from our bedroom...

...and some gorgeous shots of our "backyard," the Monarch Ridge, when it was mostly veiled by snowclouds...

...and then when things finally started to clear...

The storm did eventually clear, and warm weather returned, melting things fairly rapidly, and allowing us to take a couple of hikes before we had to leave. I'll show you how those went in upcoming posts.

Wordless Wednesday: waning moon & tower

 

More explorations

It's all too easy to get into ruts these days, and the deeper in you get, the harder it is to get out. That's how I've been feeling about my morning walks lately. When I mentioned this ennui to Henry, he suggested contacting a friend of ours who is knowledgeable about the trails in our nearby almost-wilderness area, the Olmos Basin. He was all too happy to meet us and show us around a selection of these amazing woodland routes...

Here's what the woods look like for most of the walk...

...although there were a few places where we got a bit off the beaten track and things looked more like this:

These are actually ragweed plants! They were so tall and thick they almost looked like bamboo. Glad they weren't blooming!

Other hazards along the trails are thorny vines and poison ivy (although we saw little of the latter). Not to mention...

Watch your step!

Among the less threatening flora...

But the real highlight of the trip was getting to see a neighborhood landmark from a totally new viewpoint! I have occasionally written about Olmos Dam, which is just a mile or so from our house and is what keeps downtown from flooding during our always-too-much-except-when-it's-not-enough rain events. 

Here's a post from several years ago that shows a lot of its front side. This is a walk I take when I want a real workout, since going up the sides on either end is a challenge. You really can't do it now since there's not much shade.

The backside is a little shadier, and it's so cool to see it from this vantage! To think that all the years we've lived here, this is the first time! On the right you can see the intakes with just a little puddle at their base. Yes, we're overdue for some rain and didn't even get much from Hanna.

Here's the west end, with the 281 freeway over it:

And here you can see most of the length:

As we left the dam and—eventually—found our way onto the main trail, here's how it looked from over our shoulders. Nice to know that we could never get really lost, as long as we knew where this big guy was!

Just a bit of adventuring later, we came out on our desired endpoint: the Basin soccer fields. Where it looked like there was actually a game getting ready to start.

It's a rather sad commentary, I guess, to be so excited about walking around some trails no more than 2 miles from our house, that we'd never been on before. But, it is what it is. At least we know they are there now, and when it gets cooler we'll give them another workout.

Hidden in plain sight

Talk about serendipity leading to outright gob-smackedness!

I had an errand earlier this week to take something to a friends' house in another neighborhood. I'm always on the lookout for variety in my morning walks, so I took advantage of this excuse to walk around a different neighborhood.

The friends live on Cave Lane, and I knew that the street name wasn't an accident, having heard about an extensive cave network in that area. But I didn't know its exact location and wasn't really thinking about it on this occasion. However, there it was!

I thought it was pretty cool at the time to stumble (I didn't literally stumble) upon this gem, right on a major NE San Antonio thoroughfare. And you'll see in the pix below just how cool it is. But if you take the time to read about it on the TCMA website you'll really understand how astonishing this place is. (Particularly take a look at the "History" section of the website...amazing stuff!)

This is a view looking down at the sinkhole where the cave entrance is, from a handy walkway up on top:

It's a pretty impressive sinkhole and even without the cave entrance below, it would be an attraction worth visiting. The trail leading down to the bottom is rocky, but easy enough to manage. Here's a look at it on my way down. Notice the bridge at the top, from which I took the previous picture:

And here's a look at it heading back up:

When you get to the bottom, I must admit the cave entrance is a little underwhelming. But as I learned from the website, it must open up pretty soon after you get inside. However, some crawling is required at first:

no, that's not a skeleton, but just some white rocks in an interesting configuration

No, I most certainly did NOT go inside! But the website says they have "open houses" periodically and I would be so down for one of those tours! 

How could you guess, looking at these barely-person-sized holes, what lies beyond! Since up on top they display this map, you do have some idea...

isn't that amazing!?
the website says there's more than 1500 meters
of passages that have been explored

Not a bad "discovery" for a normal morning walk!