The drops on the leaves came from snow that had melted just minutes before.
A couple of miles up the trail (and a thousand feet higher), this mullein had a pretty coating of frost,
and this fungus peeked out from under a blanket of fresh snow.
(These are photos of a few of the small treasures along the trail on a hike into the Cherry Peak roadless area in the Coeur d’Alene Mountains of western Montana on October 4, 2007.)
Montana Outdoors 
These are some beautiful shots. Just curious what kind of elev. were you at? (We have a bit of snow on Sherman Pass (elev. about 6500 ft.) but so far that’s it. (I’m hoping that it’s about that high because were not finished woodcutting … however our new snow plow blade did come in. I’m thinking it will be used a lot this year.) These pictures are so beautiful it’s really hard to pick a favorite but my eye leans towards the second… (is that a maple tree sapling?) beautiful work Terry.
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Comment by aullori — October 30, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
The first ones ranged from 5,000 to 5,500 ft, the last two were about 6,000 and 6,500 ft. This area has now had a half dozen snows and they have all melted. I’ve been cutting wood in another area that’s also over 6,000 ft. and there are just a few patches of snow there despite haveing a good 4 inches earlier.
I’m not sure what those leaves are, but I doubt they are maple, since maple is not native here and this area is pretty remote. I think they are a low-growing plant, possibly a thimbleberry.
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Comment by montucky — October 30, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Those leaves are really neat they have a lot of character to them, I would to follow you along sometime Terry, too bad its only about 1500 miles away!! 🙂
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Comment by Bernie Kasper — October 30, 2007 @ 7:17 pm
From colorful to furry frost, we can always count on some variety here.
Great pics, as always.
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Comment by Pinhole — October 30, 2007 @ 7:19 pm
Bernie,
I’d love to have you hike with me! I think you’d have a great time photographing in this environment. There’s so much opportunity.
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Comment by montucky — October 30, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
Pinhole,
There’s so much variety in the high country. I try to capture what catches my eye and I post some of it knowing that some folks won’t be interested, but some will. On this particular hike of about 8 hours I brought back 150 photos and kept about 130 of them. (I got carried away with the scenes of snow on the peaks in the roadless area.)
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Comment by montucky — October 30, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
thanks terry… were wood cutting this weekend for sure. We’ve held off because a white pine dropped across out road. (it was an easement) so we had to clear it out for neighbors. It gave us a good amount of wood tho. Joe keeps threatening about cutting down our trees… I need to get that boy up on a mt. somewhere…! or I won’t have birds to take photos in the spring. 🙂 I’m pretty sure our snow is hitting the same kind of elev. Thank you for the confirmation.
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Comment by aullori — October 31, 2007 @ 2:11 am
Great close-ups! Sometimes we can see the “great” within the “small.”
Malcolm
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Comment by knightofswords — October 31, 2007 @ 11:19 am
Lori,
Not a bad thing… cutting a tree out of the road and getting wood out of it! I still want a couple more loads, although I’m sure we have enough for the winter.
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Comment by montucky — October 31, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
knightofswords,
Sure can. All of it’s important! Often in the back country it seems that a variety of things are clamoring for attention, saying with a color or a shape, “Here I am! Look at me next!”
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Comment by montucky — October 31, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
Beautiful of God creation. Nice shot!. May I copy a few of your picture for my collection?
Thanks before 🙂
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Comment by Fakhrurrozy — November 1, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
Fakhrurrozy,
Thank you for visiting. Yes, you may copy some of my photos for your own enjoyment, but they may not be used for commercial purposes.
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Comment by montucky — November 1, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
The golden leaves are stunning!
We took a trip to Montana a few years ago and the trees were amazing…tall triangles! We’d always heard about the big skies of Montana and it proved to be true. You live in a beautiful state.
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Comment by Photo Buffet — November 4, 2007 @ 9:50 am
Photo Buffet,
Yes, this is a beautiful part of the country. Now if we have the foresight to preserve it for future generations to enjoy! Thanks for visiting!
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Comment by montucky — November 4, 2007 @ 10:43 am
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