Do I Dare Take Credit?

I probably better not. God might just send thunder and lightning to me special delivery.

So, what is that all about?

Yesterday, in a fit of aggravation over so many days of over 100 degree heat, I posted pictures taken in the mountains in an effort to adjust my “ambient mental temperature” since I couldn’t do anything about the “ambient air temperatures.”

Today, we had a high of 98 degrees and as of 4:30pm it is currently 82 degrees outside. That is only 4 degrees higher than our low for the day. All I can say is it is a good thing that I didn’t post pictures with snow in them. We are even getting occasional light rain showers, and had I posted photos of snow, we might be experiencing a blizzard.

As nice as it has been today, they are still forecasting some of our days ahead as being up over 100 again. So, for self-defense, I better post some more mountain photos for the next few days.

We had originally planned on going to Mountaindale RV Park between Colorado Springs and Canon City the last of this month. However, Eric got a new job at his company and he begins training roughly around the 13^th of this month. After he finishes the training, they want him to be on-the-job for a few weeks before going on vacation. So, it looks like it will be sometime in October before we get to go to the mountains.

While it would be a definite respite from the heat, it will also be nice to not leave the heat of Oklahoma and then have one week of Colorado cool before having to come back to Oklahoma heat. We’ve never been in Colorado that late in the year before. I checked an online source for average temperatures for Colorado Springs and October shows an average high in the 60’s with lows in the 30’s and 40’s. It also said that Colorado Springs averages 3 inches of snow in October.

Since I’ve never had photos of the Rockies with a lot of snow on them, this might be a welcome interlude from my normal photos. Speaking of photos, why don’t I shut up and show some of the ones I’ve taken.

First of all, here is Alaska in 2005 on the train ride of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad.

For a change of pace, but still from the mountains, how about the looks of this handsome fellow?

Up and across Independence Pass of the Continental Divide I found a spot where we were above some snow instead of well below it. Granted, it is a small patch of snow.

Going down the other side of the Divide, we came across this small set of falls of a stream. My brother-in-law, not being a photographer, couldn’t understand why it was that I took 14 different pictures of the same scene. He doesn’t realize the value of zooming in to get a better perspective. See for yourself.

  

Then one has the odd chance when fortune shines down upon you. While the actual lighting of the area was brighter than this, the perspective picked up by the sensors in my camera gave me this more dramatic scene.

Incidentally, these pictures in Colorado were all taken in July of 2010. While we didn’t get to camp in Colorado, we went to visit the in-laws in Tribune, Kansas and we made a slight little jaunt for about 4 days into the state.

The next day we went through the small town of Hotchkiss, in which used to live two sets of aunts and uncles on my Dad’s side of the family. We then followed Colorado 92 down along the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Part of that canyon was dammed up years ago, and that action created Crystal Lake and Morrow Lake. These photos were of Morrow Lake as it is the closest to the road. (Incidentally, my sister-in-law didn’t care for how close I was getting to the edge of the canyon. At least, not until she found out that I had plenty of insurance.)

  

I hope you have enjoyed this little photo interlude as much as I have remembered the trips, the beauty of the countryside, and the fellowship of our family.  There will be more to come, although I can’t say for sure when, as what I post is sometimes on a whim.