Welcome to Breckenridge

As I drove back to Breck from Kite Lake, the clouds, sun and everything else made for some more interesting shots. Here are a few. Light sneaks into this valley. I think this is the backside of the peaks at Kite Lake Quandary Peak -- a 14'er ....  trail goes right up the ridge line. Lighting and clouds over Breckenridge, just before sunset. Another picture from the same location overlooking town.

I think this is the first time that I've seen ptarmigan. My birder friend offered the professional ID that these are white-tailed ptarmigan often spotted in CO and UT. We found this group high up, around 12,000'. They were not even concerned about us, just kind of went about their business.  Not quite sure if and when they will turn pure white.

I was hoping to find a wreck/relic in the woods someplace in CO. .. this one showed up along a dirt road in Park City CO in Mosquito Gulch. EDIT --- it is a 1939 Chevy. As I did previously, I colorized it, put a "soft" filter on it, and then added a small bit of vignette

It is September in Breckenridge and we are into fall, the aspen leaves are turning and providing splotches of yellow throughout the area. But winter is on its way and it arrived the other day in the form of a mountain storm. We got about 1/2" here at the house. It was snowing hard for about 90 minutes. The next day opened with sun and mixed clouds depending on elevation and which side of the pass you were on. (It is surprising how the sun could be out on one side of the pass and the other side could be dark and foreboding.) So, I took the day to get out and take photos of the convergence of the seasons. And I wasn't the only one out with a real camera or traipsing around high-elevation roads in search of "Something interesting". Most of the interest was in finding contrasting images of where snow and snowless came together. I think I took over 100 picture and end up with these. And where fall and winter collided - here the aspens turning yellow and sno...

Well, the weather over the span of our time in Breckenridge has been interesting and varied. We arrived and 4 days later we got 24" of snow.... Welcome to Breckenridge!  Then the monsoon season with predictable afternoon rain. Now Sept. with gorgeous fall weather and Aspens in color. Yesterday we woke up to this rainbow Then as the day progressed and the temperature dropped -- it started snowing -- only 1/2" this time -- but in September! Locals don't consider this anything different.

So, we hosted Erin our "niece" here in Breckenridge, and treated her to many of the outdoor adventures that are nearly at our fingertips. This day we decided to hike the Boreas Pass Trail, - again -, (see a previous blog post) and experience it in the fall. Previously, I took and added a LOT of photos of the wildflowers that we saw along the way. This hike will prove to be not much different. Erin is my sister's husband's brother's daughter -- much easy to just call her our niece. When we got to the top, we encountered a herd of mountain goats!  Now, mountain goats are mostly seen in groups of maybe 5-8, yet this sighting was crazy since we counted 22!! However, as we gained more elevation, we saw that the herd was segmented and when we counted again, it was in the 35-40 range -- completely crazy. What happened was as we swung around the lower herd to get out of their way, we found ourselves in between the two as they both began to converge and settle into ...