Sidetracked Charley

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 ...

Ravens flying over Lake Coyote Last winter about this time I was blogging about Lake Coyote - the huge ice damn downstream had backed up the Little Coyote stream creating a huge ice lake in my back yard. This winter the Little Coyote is still within its banks and covered with a relatively thin coat of ice. Snow has actually been rare. So rare I got my camera out to record this 6 inch blanket in the last week. Yesterday the temperature was about 43F at my house and so much of this is gone like the 10 inch one we got in December. Today is going to be in the 40's again. In fact no significant weather for the next 10 days. It has thrown a spanner into my winter aerobics program of snow shoveling the driveway! And locals have already shifted from talking about the weather to worrying about the summer fire season in the forest. My sister and I are even contemplating taking a few days off and taking to the road to visit Chaco or Canyon de Chelle or the Grand Canyon or Monument Val...