Settling into winter

After sub-zero temperatures all of Saturday, now the snow has started to come in. After removing about 6 inches of it today, I look forward to seeing even more tomorrow and tomorrow night. What a beautiful winter it is turning out to be! Here are a few pictures from a hike today. If nothing else, I have a very happy dog: he loves the snow!

Winter walk

Over the past week we finally received some significant snowfall and today I finally got around to taking a short hike to enjoy some of it.

Weeksville Creek Rainbow

It often pays to go for a walk in the rain.

Where they grow

It occurred to me that it might be of interest to see the view that the Fairy Slippers in the previous post have through their living room window. The dog is my best friend and trail companion (the best trail dog that I’ve ever seen). The Clark Fork River valley is in the distance (and a thousand feet below) and the Weeksville Creek Canyon is in the foreground.

Following are some of the early wildflowers that are also blooming in that vicinity now: Fairybells, Glacier Lilies, Bluebells and Pacific Trilliums.

Whatever it takes

My son had my Jeep so…

Beyond here there were 4 X 4 tracks, snowmobile tracks, deer tracks, elk tracks and one set of boot tracks.

Weeksville Road.

Snow on the firs.

Weeksville Creek.

With the slightest breeze the trees were shedding snow.

The tiny Fir was the star of the show.

Weeksville

This photo was taken last Saturday facing west across the Weeksville Creek canyon in the Cabinet Mountains. The snowy ridge at the skyline is the east slope of Big Hole mountain and the beginning of KooKooSint Ridge. Country like this is a vital part of our western watershed and is home to a large number of wildlife species, such as black bear, elk, moose, big horn sheep, mule deer, whitetail deer, cougar, wild turkey, coyote, fox, bobcat and grouse, as well as all kinds of smaller animals, birds, insects and reptiles and a large diversity of plant life. I am very thankful that it’s still here and grateful that I am able to venture out into the middle of it.