A Ride in the Country

 

A Ride in the Country

Another day in the area around Bryce Canyon, we decided to take a back-road ride to see something other than the wonder of the canyon.  It was a lovely autumn ride, with a few surprises!

This lake was the first of the surprises.  It is a lake formed by a prehistoric lava flow in the area.  The lake was calm on the day we visited.  Autumn was clearly in the air, although technically, it was still summer.  The standing dead trees speak to a fire or something in the past.

The majority of our drive was filled with autumn color.  I found several quotes that I felt spoke to the images, and I’ve included them.  Autumn is the mellow time, and we felt it on this drive, slowly traveling the road we were on, and just enjoying being.

It’s hard for me to decide between spring and autumn as my favorite season.  Whenever I’m in one of those seasons, I think it’s the best, until I get to experience the other!!  Although we didn’t walk through the woods on this day, we certainly saw plenty of beautiful color along the roadside!

Perhaps there was some goldenrod on the ground, but the golden trees were the aspens, plentiful in this part of the country.  And, it certainly felt like there was a spotlight on the color of autumn.

There is comfort in the regularity of the seasons.  We always “miss” a season if it’s too short.  We feel like we’ve been shortchanged in some way.  In those instances, nature doesn’t feel very stable.  Notice how stable these trees are, even though their trunks seem to be rather crooked!  I’m guessing it has to do with how the snowfall affected them as they were growing.

Here was our second surprise!  We thought we wouldn’t see any canyons on this drive, and we drove through the small, but lovely Cedar Breaks National Monument.  It sits at about (or over!) 10,000 feet in elevation, and the Southern Palute Indians used to call it “u-map-wich” or “the place where rocks are sliding down all the time”.  Today, it is a premier cross-country skiing and snowmobiling destination.

As we left Cedar Breaks, we came across some sheep, both along the side of the road, and crossing (slowly!) in front of us.  We did notice several herds of sheep in our explorations, so these 3 just seemed to have wander a bit far afield!

And, finally, we happened to see this rather run down house or barn, just sitting out in a field.  It seemed to be best suited for a painting, and so I processed it that way.  It did feel very peaceful, but after seeing it a bit closer, it certainly wouldn’t be a place I’d choose to stay!!

Enjoy!