The Snowdon Wildlife Refuge open house always kicks the fall off right for us. This is the view from the bridge at the refuge. I love seeing the birds they are nursing back to health, and this year they had a beautiful owl and peregrine falcon.
We bought a bigger car camping tent because our backpacking tent is so tiny and uninviting. We tried it out at Jeanette Campground near Burgdorf and had such a blast!
We enjoyed a campfire and slept comfortably.
We also enjoyed the hot springs.
It isn't often that we get the whole hot springs to ourselves, but we lucked out this time!
Having tested our tent, we were off on a roadtrip. Our first stop was Park City to see our friend Gina, who took us hiking.
The great part was hiking from her front door into such beautiful colors at the ski resort.
We only ran into a few people on the trails.
View from the top of our hike.
Gina is an Antarctic friend.
The colors were very rich and varied which I really enjoyed.
We also visited downtown Park City for a whisky tasting.
After a couple days in Park City, we continued to our next stop in Bailey, Colorado.
We stayed at our friends Joni & Kory's house (who stayed with us in the spring). This was a gathering of Antarctic friends to celebrate the life of our friend Bija and our shared memories with her.
The following night was the big event in Bija's honor in downtown Denver. It was held in a big convention space and over 200 people had RSVP'd. It ended up being a wonderful Antarctic reunion where we got to see friends from all the different years and locations where we had worked. Our favorite live bands played in her honor and there were food trucks outside to cater the event. So glad to have had the opportunity to attend.
More friend time at a coffee get together at our friend Dan's home (sitting next to Dave). Dave and Dan biked in Ireland together and our Atlanta friends who photographed our wedding are sitting by my side.
A last minute idea to hike Mt. Harvard was born at that morning coffee, so we drove to the trailhead right after the get together. Here is our pre-hike photo at the start of the trail.
Dave with Tonya and Carrie.
We had rain, wind, snow and sleet.
The views were absolutely incredible and the conversations so great that we didn't even notice how far we were getting until we got very near to the top. Only Tonya intended to summit and the rest of us just wanted to join along for a little bit to stretch our legs, chit chat and see the sights. But at some point we got so far that we had to summit because it was so close. We all laugh and call this our accidental summit.
I brought a flower from Bija's ceremony to the top because Bija loved mountains and climbed a lot.
It was a beautiful way to say I love you.
Dave was ahead of us and was already on his way down by the time we gals made it up.
Lots of photo ops at the top of Mount Harvard.
It was a beautiful and colorful hike, albeit a stormy weather day for it. It is my 4th 14,000 footer (Pike's Peak, Quandary Peak & Mt. Whitney).
After delicious meals in Salida, we drove west on highway 50 to see more autumn colors.
These beautiful mountains and colors were in Curecanti National Recreation area.
Photo stop in Curecanti National Recreation Area.
We camped at a small State Park near the Idaho border near Snowville.
It was peaceful.
Brook by campsite.
We saw pronghorn antelope in the fields on our drive out the next morning. This is the first time I've been able to capture a picture.
We stopped at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in southern Idaho. It was a great trip and we remembered how much we love being on the road and stopping to see the sights. I'm hoping we keep up with the roadtrips and the camping. We stayed with friends and at hotels on this trip too, but the most memorable times were at the campgrounds and waking up to beautiful sights.
Back in McCall we went on our daily walks by the lake.
And rode our bikes on the Rail Trail to the new Payette Land Trust park by our property.
We also hiked up to the Twentymile lakes and flew our drone to capture the sights. This is a challenging hike off of Warren Wagon road and the last time we hiked up was almost 20 years ago for July 4th.
Aspen trees on our hike.
Maple leaves in downtown McCall.
A fun fire get together with friends at Emily & Sean's house. We also went to one at Delta & Colin's.
My favorite colorful trees on a walk near the river.
The aspens in Ponderosa State Park are always an autumn highlight.
Selfie with aspens.
Dave turned one of the photos of the trees into an art piece that is hung above our couch.
I never tire of seeing these trees.
Dave built us a slat wall in the garage so that we can hang our gear. It looks incredible!
On the French Creek hike off of Warren Wagon Road.
This tree had so many mushrooms growing out of it. It looked incredible!
We painted and added two more metal flowers to the bedroom wall at the condo.
A beautiful walk in Ponderosa State Park.
And another visit to the aspen grove.
We went to Boise to see the solar eclipse (this was the photo I got using the eclipse glasses to cover my phone's camera lens).
We also went to the Boise artist open house event where we got to visit lots of Boise artists in their studios and see how they do their work. We bought a beautiful Salmon in a river painting. It was enriching to see so much talent and get to understand their methodology.
Sunset view from our new property at Moon View.
Tamarack trees on Forest street, one of our favorite walks in McCall.
Payette Lake from Rotary Park in McCall
Tamarack trees in full color on west mountain road along Cascade Lake near Tamarack Resort.
The fruits of weeks of weeding clovers out of our lawn at the townhome. Sunny days all of them.
I made sushi (maki) rolls. And below are the trees on another favorite walk in town which takes us to Davis Beach where were were married.
This autumn was awesome because we got to enjoy the colors in McCall and again in Utah and Colorado. It was great to be off work and be able to take full advantage of the season and spend so much quality time with Dave. Love you!
