Fall-inter

October 17, 2013

Due to the federal government doing federal government things I got to have the day off from work.  I am not complaining about the day off, I’m complaining about the f government.  I’ve been working the whole time so I am better off than a lot of people.  That morning I kept going back and forth ‘To hike’ or ‘Not to hike’.  I was leaning ‘Not to hike’ but at the last minute decided to go....

Since I was the only one off I had to go myself.  This has never stopped me before, I know I shouldn’t do it but I thought this may be my only opportunity to see full fall colors.  My previous two hikes were way too early in the season.  As it turns out this was a great day.  I got to see lots of fall color and some snow, the advancing of winter, hence the title fall and impending winter.
  

I went back to the Jemez Mountains, the Rio Cebolla valley in particular.  Byron and I made it here last year after all the leaves were gone but the valley and the continuously flowing, even though small, river attracted me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a two hour drive, the mileage is not great, it’s 20 or so miles of interstate freeway, 20 miles of four lane road and 40 miles of two-lane road with speed limits between 25 and 50 mph.  The views along the way are spectacular.  I’ve been this way now about 8 times this year and always enjoy the drive.  The fall colors in the Jemez Valley come in early relative to the Cebolla valley.  You have to go by the Seven Spring Fish Hatchery to get to the parking area for the Rio Cebolla, I have included a link to the hatchery with a basic map to the hatchery.  http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/conservation/wildlife_management_areas/documents/SevenSprings.pdf

Today was one of the coldest days we’ve had in some time, a couple days prior a storm blew through and deposited snow in the high mountains to the north and to make my day I found snow in the shaded areas along the road and on my hike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was one other car parked upon my arrival.  As it turns out the owner was a fly fisherman with his two dogs.  Fishing was fair but he told me that he comes up here twice a week all spring and summer, all the way to mid November to fish.  The river is clear; there have been no fires in the immediate vicinity of this valley to cloud the river with debris from fires.

There are stands of aspen all through this little valley.  Glowing yellows surrounded by dark greens of the fir trees.  I went up the valley about 1.5 miles before I decided to turn around.  The usual happened, I was too busy looking to make pictures than put on mileage, which is the real reason I was up there in the first place.  You may recognize some of the locations from my December 26, 2012 post.

I crossed the river several times as I was looking for locations to photograph the fall colors.  The shadows from the trees added interest to the many of the images.  I got to get out my macro lens to do a few close-ups of some of the leaves in the snow and even found a few dried bones laying out in the open so I did a poor imitation of Georgia O’Keefe with my camera.

I hope you enjoy the images.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark