Autumn at Bear Lake

The opening photo is taken from Temple canyon looking east to the south corner of Bear Lake. The east side of the lake is in Wyoming.
Bear Lake is on the Utah-Idaho border, at an altitude of about 6000 feet. The primary trees that turn good colors in the fall are big tooth maples and quaking aspens. On this particular expedition my son Dean and I stayed at the Edwards Lodge on the shores of Bear Lake and enjoyed a tour guided by the Old White Haired guy and The Saint. Dean and the guides are shown below.




Below: View from Edwards Lodge



The series of photos that follow are from an area called Temple Flat. The trees that have turned yellow are quaking aspen("quakies"). If I remember my GPS readings right they are about 7500 feet high.



I love to shoot quakies backlit to capture the glow that the sun produces shining through the yellow leaves. You have to be careful doing this to keep the sun from shining directly on the lens. I have a lens shade that came with the lens but my favorie and most effective is my hat. If you are using a tripod it makes it a lot easier to use your hat as a sunshade. The effect of backlighting is shown in varying degrees in the photos below.








The image below was taken in Logan Canyon.

Quakies, Snow and Other Sights

I have been wanting to take some decent photographs of quaking aspens in the snow for quite some time. I decided a few years ago that the only way this was going to happen was to go to Flagstaff when a snow storm is coming, hole up in Little America and sally forth from time to time to do some photography. Storms have come and gone over several years without me going to Flagstaff to be in one. I finally faced the facts, which are these: I hate being cold and wet and despise driving on snowy, icy roads. Therefore the chances of me deliberately going to Flag in the middle of a snowstorm are slim and none. So one day last week I rounded up an old white haired guy and went to Flag for the day. Below--Old White Haired Guy



The weather was beautiful;clear blue skies with an occasional white cloud, no wind, Phoenix temp 80+, Flagstaff temp 61. We drove from Flag to the west of Mt Humphries and north on the highway that leads to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We stopped at some aspen groves along the highway that had a turnout associated with them. Otherwise we couldn't stop the car along the highway because of the snow. We were at an elevation of 8000' plus, and there was plenty of snow, although it wasn't too cold. As seen below we were able to take advantage of a snowmobile track so we could walk in the snow without sinking in up to our butts.



The quakies in the snow are beautiful. Below are a couple of photos.





While walking along the snowmobile track we came to this magnificent old quakie. I don't know if this monarch of the forest is still alive, but I hope so. I plan on going back in late spring to see.



We stopped in Flag on the way home, had lunch,and took out a bank loan so we could buy enough gasoline to get home. While filling the Jeep with gas we noticed the cat below at the attached car wash cleaning the inside of his car. Apparently he exists in a portable anti-gravity bubble. I can think of no other explanation for his pants not being on the ground.



We drove on what I call the back way going and coming home. This road runs from Mesa through Payson, Pine and Strawberry and alongside Mormon Lake and Lake Mary. On the way home we saw a bunch of waterfowl in the shallow end of Lake Mary in an apparent feeding frenzy, probably after a school of fish, and a bald eagle flying close to them to see what was going on. No place to stop so no photos. I have traveled this road for at least 30 years and have never seen a bald eagle along it before. A fitting end to a great day.

Quakies and Green Chili Burros

A couple of weeks ago Lance P.(“Pussy”) Boyle and I went on a day trip in search of big trees. According to the web site American Forests: National Register of Big Trees the biggest quaking aspen in the US resides in the Pinaleno mountains of southeastern Arizona. Lance had seen it once before with the help of a Forest Service person and thought we could find it again with Forest Service help. We planned this for late spring, but one thing and another kept coming up and we didn't make it until late August when the monsoon was at it's height.

We left about 0600 on a cloudy morning. By the time we got to the San Carlos Reservation it was raining; the rain really got heavy in Safford. It continued to rain partway up the mountain but quit near the top. The last 15 miles or so is dirt road so the jeep turned color from red to brown. We got near where the tree was supposed to be and checked in with the Forest Service for final directions. By this time the rain had stopped, but the cloud cover remained in place making the light flat and fairly lousy for what we had in mind. We were at about 9500 feet elevation. It was light jacket temperature.

We found the quakie easily enough. Picture taking was another matter altogether. The tree is on a pine needle covered slope and difficult to photograph because of other trees, poor light, etc. Plus trying to remain upright on a wet pine needle slick slope with camera and tripod is no small feat. Some how we managed without serious accident.


I was surprised to find that the bark of the big quakie was black and scaly on the bottom part of the tree and didn't become white until a ways up the trunk. It is one big tree. It is 130 feet high, with a diameter of 4-1/2 feet and a 36 foot spread of the canopy. I don't doubt that there are other quakies as big or even bigger than this one, but finding them is another matter. Quakies can live to be 150 years old.


We also found a big Douglas fir(above), supposedly the #2 Douglas fir in the US. I could not confirm that but it is also one big tree. It is about ¼ to ½ mile from the big quakie and equally as difficult to photograph for the same reasons.

Having spent many years traveling, working and eating in southern Arizona, I maintain that you take your life in your hands when you enter an eatery outside of Tucson. Zula's in Nogales is great and there was a diner in San Simon that served a great green chile burro, but only on Thursday. The other days the menu was barely edible, let alone the food. But I digress. We got back to Safford about 1430 hours and decided we needed lunch. We went to old downtown Safford and found a restaurant that Pussy claimed to have eaten in once and survived. It was clean and had people eating at tables which I thought was a good sign for a midafternoon Saturday.

I ordered a green chile burro. The waitress asked if I wanted it enchilada style. I replied “Of course.”
The chips and salsa were good, so I was very hopeful and looking forward with anticipation. After a bit she served the green chili burro, enchilada style. The entire plate was smothered with RED SAUCE!
I was stunned. The inside of the burro was green chili pork. In all my years of green chili burros this was a first. A Mexican gastronomical faux pas of the first order. I went ahead and ate it; the Good Lord only knows what I would have gotten if I'd complained. Later I found out what the problem was. My daughter's in-laws roots go back to Thatcher and she informed me that I had eaten in the wrong town! Surely this would not have happened in Thatcher! Oh, well. At least I survived.