THE AIR HAS CLEARED

After weeks and weeks of smoke in the valley we have had a change in the weather pattern.  We now have more visibility than we have had for weeks. We can see the mountains on both sides of the valley.  What a welcome change this is.  We even had snow in the high elevations so some of the fires have been snuffed out.  For the most part, the fire folks are saying this might be the end of our fire season - we sure hope so.

A firecracker penstemon we got from Poki this spring is blooming.

Our valley without all the smoke.

And there is snow on the palisades.  

Two days of clear skies - we are getting spoiled.

Still have elk around though.  We spooked these while on our morning walk the other day.

It sure is nice to see the other side of the valley!

THICK SMOKE FROM FOREST FIRES

We have had some pretty thick smoke in the past week although the last 2 days have been great.  I took a few pictures of the smoke around our place and they are below.  We have been running into the elk the last two mornings also.  But they are really getting spooky as hunting season approaches.

These pictures were taken with my old small pocket camera so are not that good.  But there are 3 cow butts lined up there.

Where did you people come from.  The elk bolted right after this and ran all the way across Coal Pit as shown in the picture below.  You will have to click on it to enlarge to see them.

Below is one of the bucks that just lay in the trees and watch us walk by.

Below are pics of smoke around our place.

The above pic is from our upper fire pit.

From the cabin porch looking towards the east mountains.