A Fall Trip to the Sawtooths

Brent had a day off from school Thursday and we had a hankering to see the fall colors, so we drove up north to the Sawtooth Mountains. We hit it just right--the colors were beautiful even though it's hard to see in this picture. At the lower elevations there were variations of green and gold and the higher we went the more gold there was. Brent and I both grew up in areas where there was a lot more red in the fall, and here in Idaho there is hardly any. We talked about missing the red but that doesn't make the yellow any less beautiful!
We stopped for lunch at a little park in Hailey with a wonderful, intricate play structure which Brent helped Katya explore. Katya had a ball on the swings and she could have played on the slide all day! The hanging bridge was a novel experience. Once she got used to the its unstableness she ran quick little steps back and forth in the middle. Brent and I were each standing at an end and she thought it was funny to almost run into our outstretched arms and then turn around and run toward the other parent. She also liked stomping with one foot to make the bridge shake. It was so nice to be together as a family.
We finally tore ourselves away for more sightseeing. As we drove up past Ketchum the evergreens grew more and more prevalent. We went from being surrounded by golden aspen to areas where the yellow was in patches and slivers on the hillsides. But these areas were particularily breathtaking because the pines just set off the colorful aspens.
It also grew cloudier as we ventured higher into the mountains; when the sun peeked out from behind the thick clouds, it hit the golden trees and made each one look like a tower of flame against a dark green backdrop. Then when the sun was hidden, the trees looked like they were frozen in a golden frost. It reminded me of the frosts we sometimes get in the winter that cover everything, yet at the same time bring out each detail. You see bushes, trees or grass and each and every branch, twig and blade are covered with thick prickly layers of frost. That's how the trees looked as we drove by: they looked to be covered with golden hoar-frost except it was yellow leaves.
We kept going and paid a visit to Galena Summit but it was awfully cold and blowy up there, so we didn't stay long. Do you like our self portait? We turned around and headed home, enjoying the fall colors in reverse.