Halfway Through November

From the Top of Spyglass Hill


Went looking for signs of winter this morning. Drove past the base of the ski resort and no sign of any snow making activity. It was 28 this morning but do not know when it reached that temp. The NOAA forecast for the next seven days shows no snow. And for the fun of it I clicked on Wunderkind's November projection. None there either.

I had a property and pets to check on at the top of Spyglass Hill. From experience I knew there was a nice view of the ridge of the Sangre de Cristos. If you look carefully there are a couple tiny white spots on the tallest peak. This is south facing and the days have been cloudless and in the 50's. Today is forecast for 58 f and tomorrow 61!

Seemed a good day for a drive so I headed down the road to the Coyote Creek and Black Lake. Yes, there is a Black Lake. It is what is left of a huge peat bottom lake mostly rich meadow now.


The Black Lake


The first thing I noticed as a resident of the area is that the cattle are still here. This area and up through the Moreno Valley was for summer grazing. Cattle trucks bring them in March and take them away in mid October. The cattle are so used to this routine that they are bunched up against the fences to be taken away by the first of October. Not this year. It was as if they knew the trucks were not scheduled.

And the fields have been mowed and round bales of sweet grass stored in huge stacks at every ranch. Looks as if they are all figuring on keeping most of their stock on the home range this winter. In the photo below to the immediate left of the building you can see the large round bales piled three high in four or five rows.  And the cattle on the right are standing in the grass up to their bellies.


Closeup of the old homestead and hay storage


The entire ridge should be totally snow covered by this time. Everyone is blaming it on La Nina. Below you will see how this looked last spring. No cattle, no hay supplies, and a very snowy mountain chain.


March 10, 2021


And below is now.



This November 14, 2021



Comments

  1. Ien in the KootenaysNovember 14, 2021 at 9:35 PM

    I am surprised by how little snow there was March 10. But yes, late winter.

    ReplyDelete

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