Sun Apr 23 01:03:07 MDT 2006
Photo - Winter: Cone Pits
One of my favorite things about winter hikes are the pinecones. The sun reflects off of the snow, but the pinecones (and other things with relatively low albedos) absorb the sunlight, get warm, and melt themselves into the snow. I took about 3-6 additional photos of cone-pits, but they were so bloody blurry, that I trashed them.
Taken: Winter, 2005: Brainard Lake Trail, Colorado
Wed Jan 18 09:04:17 MST 2006
Photo - Winter: Vermont Fungi
One of the nicest things about the woods in Vermont, is that most of the trees are deciduous, which leaves the winter landscape looking drastically different than the mountains of Colorado, where so many of the trees are coniferous. When hiking around in Gifford Woods, my sister pointed out the fungi growing on the sides of the trees, which we also don't see here in the semi-arid climate of Colorado.
Taken: January, 2006: Gifford Woods State Park, VT
Wed Jan 4 16:25:24 MST 2006
Photo - Winter: Mohike
The first part of the mohike (where these photos were taken), was Bald Mountain, just west of Boulder, Colorado. The weather was very atypical of Colorado. It was foggy and humid, and you could see the individual ice crystals on the pine needles.
Taken: March, 2005 - Bald Mountain, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado
Tue Dec 20 00:50:09 MST 2005
Photo - Winter: snow shelf
This little hill of snow had really cool layers, almost like shelves. I like to pretend that the shelves were hundreds of feet tall, and I'm walking along the edge, looking up at how gigantic this wall of snow is... then I climb on my tauntaun, and ride away.
Taken: January, 2005 - Brainard Lake, Colorado
Mon Nov 28 10:02:57 MST 2005
Photo - Winter: Crust on Dust
This was probably my favorite hike of the year. I had a new mohawk, and everything had an interesting spin to it. Looking at the branches, there was a hard layer of ice on top of the lightest of layers of snow. Actually, the whole ground was like this, not just the branches on the tree. Bizarre and beautiful.
Taken: March, 2005: Red Rocks Trail, Boulder, Colorado
Sun Nov 20 03:20:42 MST 2005
Photo - Winter: Bark Hole
I thought this was neat. This tree, still alive, suffered some sort of damage, leaving this huge patch with no bark. Still, even though it had no bark in this area, there was a clear shell of what I assume was sap, protecting it from intruders... wind, weather, insects, disease, etc...
Taken: January '05