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!

 

Backroad Drive

On the day we visited Cloudcroft, we took the backroad back home. 

Backroad Drive

The air was clear and cool, and the pine trees added a wonderful scent.

Picnic

We found a lovely spot for a picnic, too!  So nice to sit on a log that served as a rustic table!  Miki enjoyed not only the drive, but the picnic as well.  After all, I packed a lunch for her, too!

View of White Sands

As we came down from higher up the mountain, we saw this wonderful view of White Sands in the distance.  I couldn’t help but think of how great it was for the homes we passed – this is their view from the window!

Enjoy!

Back Road Flowers

I was very happy to see that the wildflower season was still in full bloom, so to speak!  We saw flowers almost everywhere we went!  I couldn’t resist sharing them with you –

Summer Daisies

Daisies are such a happy flower, aren’t they?  They always just remind me of smiles. And, sunshine, with the yellow centers, and the white petals, like the clouds in the sky.  Ok, so my imagination is running a bit wild with this one, but it does seem to fit, doesn’t it?

White Flowers

These may be the same type of flowers that Georgia O’Keeffe painted.  However, I don’t think she knew what they were any more than I do, since she called the paintings of the flowers, “White Flowers”, I believe!  Still, they are so lovely against the green, aren’t they?

Purple Asters

I’m not 100% certain, but I believe these are purple asters.  They may be known by another name formally, but I do think they are in the aster family.  When I googled purple asters, the images look rather like these!  In any event, I was really surprised to see these, since I don’t know that I’ve ever just come across them on my own, without knowing in advance they bloomed in an area.  A real find!

Scarlet Penstemon

The scarlet penstemon looks so much different from what they call the Rocky Mountain Penstemon, it’s hard to see the family tie, so to speak!  Still, this is a lovely flower, altho they tend to grow in sparse groupings or singly, so to get an impressive “bunch” of them in an image, is kind of impossible for me. 

Enjoy!

Back Road to Taos

After the cabins, we actually turned onto the dirt roads that we’d follow almost all the way to Taos.  The sights were varied, and kept us captivated during the entire drive.

Driving the Back Road

We were having typical monsoon weather while on this camping trip, so we were a bit concerned that the roads might be a bit muddy and difficult to travel.  However, they actually were quite nice, and the afternoon showers only served to keep the dust down!  These roads were quite well maintained, as we discovered several folks did some true back country camping as we traveled along the way!

Old Fence

This portion of the fence just seemed so perfect sitting in the back woods.  I imagine that at one time, it was more complete, and held some horses, or even cattle.  Makes you wonder what happened to the rest of it, but that this part was left to stand as a sort of monument to times past.

White Woods

I have come to learn that these are not birch, but alder instead.  I loved the look of what I think of as the white woods.  I adjusted the image so that the white of the alders was emphasized. 

Wild Life Sighting

And, then, along the road, we saw 2 deer.  It seemed as tho they were as surprised to see us as we were delighted to see them!  I took several images, but these three tell the story.  They see us, and then, one at a time, they decided they didn’t care for us or our mode of transport, and off they went!

Peaceful Stream

We did stop at a place that seemed like it would be a lovely backwoods camping area and had a look around.  There was a lovely stream, slowing flowing along.  Camping here wouldn’t give us the sound of a babbling brook, but it would provide a nice place to sit and read, or think, or just imagine.

Enjoy!

In Miki’s Words…..

Hi, I’m Miki.  Jeff & Nadine are my people pack and also my Dad & Mom.  I told Mom that I wanted to have a try at writing a blog post (even tho I’m not quite sure what it is) to tell my story about our Abiquiu camping trip.  She told me to have at it, and so I am!

Swimming at Abiquiu Lake

To me, one of the most important features of a campground is whether it’s close to a lake.  I can’t speak for other German Shepherds, but I truly do love the water.  Mom calls me a “water dog”, and I guess I truly am!  Dad always manages to find just the perfect stick to throw into the water, so I can rescue it and bring it back to him!

In the Shade

Sometimes I don’t know about Mom & Dad. They seem to like to explore in the sun a lot, especially Mom taking all her photographs.  But, I’m always wearing a heavy fur coat, so I have to be a bit smarter than they are – I always look for the shade!

Going for a Walk

Here’s where I took Dad for a walk in the shade by the river.  Mom stayed in the sun (sometimes, I just don’t understand her) to shoot pictures of something or other.  I thought I’d check out the water here, but the current was just too fast and strong to jump in.

Favorite Spot

And, here I am again in my favorite spot in the campground.  Frankly, I think water, electric and other stuff that are important to Dad & Mom are highly over-rated.  I love them, but they are humans and much higher maintenance that we pups!

Woof!