The mountains are in the Coeur d’Alene Mountain range, across the Clark Fork River from Munson Creek which flows out of the Cabinet Mountains.
The white color on the overhanging branches is not frost, but lichens which seem to be doing well from the moisture and unseasonally warm weather.
Montana Outdoors 
It doesn’t look like too much of an elevation change between fall and winter.
Most lichens do love water and soak it up like a sponge. They must also like a lot of light because they spend a lot of time in the treetops.
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Comment by New Hampshire Garden Solutions — December 13, 2015 @ 4:09 pm
No, winter is descending to valley level. It’s only a few hundred feet or a few degrees of temperature from reaching the valley. We are about to enter the time I like the least where the temps hover around freezing and there is wet snow and rain in the air. Doesn’t bother me personally, but lots of people have big trouble with icy roads.
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Comment by montucky — December 13, 2015 @ 4:21 pm
Love those droplets on the leaf. Is that a purple smokebush?
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — December 13, 2015 @ 5:01 pm
I’m not familiar with smokebush, but I think this might just be dogwood.
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Comment by montucky — December 13, 2015 @ 10:27 pm
I thought at first there were some flowers blooming at the left side of the next-to-last photo, but then I saw the leaf in the last one, and decided that might be it. It’s such a pretty color, and the drops are a wonderful complement.
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Comment by shoreacres — December 13, 2015 @ 6:03 pm
I see what you were looking at, but there won’t be flowers again there until April when the trilliums bloom. There are a lot of purple leaves though along the creek.
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Comment by montucky — December 13, 2015 @ 10:29 pm
As it turns out, a lot of the country is still waiting for winter, sort of wondering where it is.
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Comment by Malcolm R. Campbell — December 13, 2015 @ 8:23 pm
It’s only several hundred feet above us now, Malcolm. There is fairly good snow amounts on some of the ski areas already and a lot more coming this week.
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Comment by montucky — December 13, 2015 @ 10:30 pm
Your photos are so clear I feel I’m standing right there seeing the same view …. just gorgeous. Love those place names. 🙂
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Comment by Teresa Evangeline — December 13, 2015 @ 8:23 pm
I’m glad that you have that feeling Teresa. It was crisp there today despite a few low clouds and the snow was nice to see on the mountains.
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Comment by montucky — December 13, 2015 @ 10:33 pm
Gorgeous photos! Merry Christmas to you from Montreal, Canada. 🙂
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Comment by Linda — December 14, 2015 @ 11:28 am
Thank you Linda! Merry Christmas to you too!
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Comment by montucky — December 14, 2015 @ 4:28 pm
So very inviting! I’m glad you’re getting out there and bringing back these treasures for us/me. 🙂
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Comment by seekraz — December 15, 2015 @ 7:31 am
I hope to be getting out there more often soon, at least as far as I can get from the trails that start from the valley.
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Comment by montucky — December 15, 2015 @ 11:23 am
Oh that looks cold! Love the magnifying effect of the raindrops. Beautiful.
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Comment by Jo Woolf — December 15, 2015 @ 9:37 am
The snow level is approaching valley level. A hundred miles to the south us there was about 8 inches last night and cold nights are coming!
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Comment by montucky — December 15, 2015 @ 11:25 am
That is so beautiful, I love watching the snow fill the mountains. The snow level here in Seattle is getting down to about 3,000 feet.
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Comment by Charlie@Seattle Trekker — December 15, 2015 @ 6:05 pm
That’s cold for Seattle! The snow level is about that here now too, but it’s supposed to change by morning.
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Comment by montucky — December 15, 2015 @ 6:48 pm
It already looks wintery to me there 🙂 It’s cold here, freezing at night, covering the plants, etc., very brisk and crisp.
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Comment by Candace — December 16, 2015 @ 2:21 pm
“Freezing at night” is indeed cold there! I even have pictures of snow on the Saguaros from way back when though. It’s wintery again here. A little snow locally, but one town about 80 miles to the north had 8 inches of snow today.
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Comment by montucky — December 16, 2015 @ 7:22 pm
I would never have thought that the white color would be from Lichen. Glad you mentioned it. Your scenery is so beautiful it takes one’s breath away! It was warm humid and cloudy here in central FL today. We have spotted a flock of a small songbird here. Tomorrow I hope to spot the flock and photograph whatever bird it is. Have a really great day tomorrow!
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Comment by wildlifewatcher — December 16, 2015 @ 6:10 pm
By Christmas I should be able to have some snow pictures again. You must be having a great time with all of the birds that gather there for the winter! Have a great day!
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Comment by montucky — December 16, 2015 @ 7:24 pm
Do the Cabinet Mountains look like a cabinet (or several)?
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Comment by Steve Schwartzman — December 20, 2015 @ 9:51 am
Apparently some of the early French explorers who traveled with David Thompson thought they looked like a row of boxes or cabinets and gave them that name. Personally I don’t see it. Pretty big row of boxes: they cover over 2000 square miles.
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Comment by montucky — December 20, 2015 @ 10:46 am
Wow. Three first photos are my favorite. Because we do not have mountains, only hills, I love them.
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Comment by Sartenada — December 22, 2015 @ 3:19 am
I love those mountains too, Matti! They are natural treasures.
Have a Merry Christmas and hapy holidays!p
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Comment by montucky — December 22, 2015 @ 7:29 pm