I am doing another two-part "photo of the week" blog post this week to continue to catch up from missed weeks. Given the cold weather setting in here in Lincoln, and the long winter ahead, I figured I'd post a couple storm pictures and pretend I had warm supercell inflow at my back. The first one is a long exposure shot of a roll cloud moving ahead of thunderstorms southwest of Beatrice, NE on June 4, 2015.
Corn ready to be harvested near Plasi, NE, with the few trees on the eastern Nebraska plains at peak fall color.
This is another two-part post for this week, as I'm way behind on the "weekly" nature of this blog.
This picture was taken near sunset at Star School Hill Prairie Conservation Area in northwest Missouri in the Loess Hills (far northern Atchison County, MO). This location was referred to by William Clark as "bald pated prairie" during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the crew spent a day exploring the area during the summer of 1804. While much of the tree foliage was gone by now, the lighting at sunset made for a beautiful prairie scene.
As a second post (pun loosely intended) for today, the first snow of the 2020-21 cold season blanketed the region northwest of Lincoln, locally known as the "Bohemian Alps". The peaking fall colors, combined with overcast skies and snow on recently harvested fields made for a beautiful Great Plains autumn scene. Photo taken from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery, just north of Abie, NE, mid-October 2020.
Since it's been several weeks since my last post, I will be doing two for this week to start to catch up for lost weeks. The first photo for this week is from the Dark Canyon/Irwin Lake/Dyke Trail loop in Gunnison National Forest along Kebler Pass. The fall foliage was spectacular along this 6 mile hike in late September 2020.
A grove of aspen trees just beginning to show off brilliant fall colors in late September 2019. Even during the middle of the day, this was an easy picture to take; just walked into the forest, pointed the camera skyward, and click! This picture was taken after hiking the Three Lakes Trail off of Gunnison County Route 12 between Paonia and Crested Butte, CO, the road which summits Kebler Pass (well known for its spectacular autumn shows). My family and I were a bit early, as fall colors in 2019 were a bit delayed, and were still spotty on September 24th in this region. As can be seen below, many trees were more of an off-green than gold. This was particularly true of the groves lining the West Elk Mountains to the north of CR 12.
In mid-October 2019, I took a day for hiking and photography at Waubonsie State Park in southwest Iowa and Brickyard Hill Conservation Area in northwest Missouri, as well as surrounding parts of the I-29 corridor near the Iowa/Missouri state line. Much of the fall foliage in the Missouri River floodplain (primarily cottonwood trees) and surrounding Loess Hills lining the Missouri River was peaking at this time.
When driving from Lincoln to Waubonsie State Park in the morning, I noticed an assortment of hay bales on a farm off of Iowa State Route 2, just to the east of I-29. Thankfully, the weather cooperated later that day, such that the golden hour lighting on the recently harvested hay field, combined with foliage in the Loess Hills, made for a pleasant pastoral scene.
I'll probably include photos from other parts of this day trip in future posts.
