Happy New Year!

From the banks of the wild and scenic Crooked River, Oregon. 2024

Iridescent light filters through the forests in Winter. Rounding soft corners, rough textures, and pockets of deep shadows. Winter light subtly stretches dawn into dusk. My footsteps are silenced by the soft needle filled floor. Sounds are absent, absorbed, muffled, in the damp forest air. My breath hangs in the air for a moment. I am deep in thought in the half light of winter’s dawn.

From the land of cold temps. Put another log on the fire and settle in. At least the pillows are soft! #landscapephotography #winterwonderland #colorado #pillowsofsnow #frost #winterphotography

The desert wasn’t a place I ever visited as a child. It wasn’t a place that pulled on my heartstrings with a longing to return. It’s a foreign land to me. It’s a native land, a place etched by the traces of ancient civilizations. I am a visitor here. I can pass through the landscape and enjoy its natural beauty, but I may never fully understand it’s depths and folds.

To lingering light, hikes, and crunching leaves under our feet. Long shadows pull winter’s veil ever closer. Pause to long in these short days and snowflakes will cover your tracks.

The October light show has been incredible lately. Enjoyed some sagebrush and solitude watching the Hunter moonrise through the clouds. I flushed four Dusky Grouse walking through the sagebrush. In the quiet I could hear a rancher down in the valley a mile away pushing cattle into a lot and closing the gates, cattle moaning and working dogs barking.

Love this time of the year! When the light becomes moodier and shadows are long. When clouds hang low on the mountains and white blankets the tops of peaks. When the green of summer fades into gold and leaves drift in the wind leaving gold coins scattered on the ground.

It all begins with an idea.

All this cloudy rainy weather in the Rockies doesn’t mean the mega drought is over. But it’s good weather for planning and dreaming and setting some intentions. It’s also good for dramatic landscapes. Here’s to throwing pennies in the wishing pool!

Down Curecanti creek in a Summer morning mist. Raindrops overnight have washed the sky clean, the air is clear and crisp. The rain-swept trail clean of footprints offers a sense of newness to the day. Past Lodgepole, Aspen, and Fir, the trail contours downward towards a stream…

With the rainfall we have been fortunate to have this Summer I’ve been enjoying time spent in sagebrush country.