Summer's End

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date." ~ William Shakespeare

The wild grass is high and has gone to seed, the light is shorter and more golden, the mornings and evenings are cooler.  The end of summer is nigh. 

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever"  ~ Carl Sagan

June, July, and August have passed so quickly! The weather was uncomfortably hot this year--we broke weather records for heat. Denver is currently tied for its 4th-hottest summer in recorded history (1872-present). The National Weather Service (NWS) defines summer from June 1 to August 31. We had five days of 100 degrees or higher, forty-six days of 90 degrees or higher, and five days either tied or broke the record high temperature. The weather felt even more oppressive this summer due to the high ozone from the heat and Western wildfire smoke in our atmosphere for many days.  I was happy that we invested in two Hepa air purifiers this year which ran almost constantly.

"If you don't like the weather in Colorado wait 15 minutes--

it will change." ~ Common Folklore

Speaking of weather....no, this isn't snowing...it is hail that fell during a recent afternoon thunderstorm!  We were out shopping and as we drove back into our community we began to see patches of white on the ground, even though the temperature was hot.  When we got home we saw that hail knocked off some of the tree leaves and battered a few of our flowers but thankfully no other damage was done.  As you can see from the close-up, in the photo collage above, the hail was about the size of a dime and a nickel.  Happily, it wasn't any bigger as at times Colorado has golf ball to softball size hail that is very damaging.

"Happily we bask in this warm September sun, which illuminates all creatures." ~ Henry David Thoreau

My garden is fading but I hope our figs will ripen in these last weeks of warm sun.  My roses formed rose hips and I'm drying the sunflower head to save for the birds to eat in winter. The last of summer to savor and anticipation of autumn's beauty to look forward to! Autumn is my favorite season--what is yours?

"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be..." ~ Robert Browning

Our son's in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in a fun way this month. They rented a private suite at Coors Field in Denver for a Colorado Rockies game for the entire family to attend.  It was catered with delicious food and we all had a fun time watching the game and all the festivities. We wish them many, many, more years of wedded bliss!

September 11th is always a sad day for us.  I have written many past blog posts about this day and our experiences that day as we lived in New York City at the time and my husband worked in #7 World Trade Center. We knew many who perished that tragic day.  On this 20th anniversary of the event, the memories are still sharp and the desire that good will prevail over evil is still my hope even more than ever.

“If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn

that life is short and there is no time for hate.”

~ Sandy Dahl, wife of Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl

The pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, Jason Dahl, lived in our Colorado community at the time. His flight was the plane that the brave passengers brought down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to prevent further destruction in Washington DC. Our community put up a memorial of a flying eagle and the plaque above in his memory after 9-11.  Every year on 9-11 many gather at his memorial to pay tribute to him and all the others who perished that tragic day with a moment of silence. 

 A beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky this year during the memorial gathering. Another sign of hope! It is up to all of us to make the world a better place--spread kindness and defeat hate!

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The Silver Thread Scenic and Historic Byway

The Silver Thread Scenic and Historic Byway--CO 149-- was designated by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation as a National Scenic Byway in 2021. It is one of 13 America’s Byways designated in Colorado. It provides access to a diversity of scenic wonders in a vast wilderness, historical mining town landmarks, and extensive recreational opportunities for hiking, camping, and fishing.  

In prior blog posts, I showed the two historic mining towns of Creede--click here-- and Lake City--click here--as well as the magnificent North Clear Creek Waterfall --click here--that are located along the byway. Now I'd like to show some more features we saw along the drive.

One unusual geologic feature we saw was the National Natural Landmark called the Slumgullion Earthflow or Slide. 

It is a rare example of an earthflow, called mass wasting. About 700 years ago, an area of Mesa Seco, composed of partially decomposed volcanic rock, slid down the mountain and blocked the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. This natural dam formed what is now known as Lake San Cristobal. The earthflow is about 4 miles long and covers over 1000 acres.

A second earthflow began about 300 years ago and is still active today. The United States Geologic Survey (USGS) tracks the movement of the slide, which in some places moves as much as 20 feet per year. It covers some of the original slide and can be detected by observing the trees growing on it that are tipped at odd angles.

The Slumgullion Slide was likely named by early settlers of Lake City who noted that the yellow color of the soils resembled Slumgullion Stew. “Slum” as it was also called, was generally a watery stew made from beef, potatoes, carrots, and onions, or whatever leftovers could be found. Also, miners of the 1800s referred to the leftover mud in gold sluices as slumgullion.

Please Click on Photo to Enlarge 

As this placard explains, twenty million years ago this entire region was geologically actives as massive volcanoes changed the landscape.

My husband and I marveled at the different shapes of volcanic rock and the erosion that was ongoing over the millenniums.

There were many beautiful castle-like formations of mountainous rock along the way.

Another interesting part of the drive was seeing the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River a 64.7-mile-long (104.1 km) tributary of the Gunnison River in Colorado. The river's source is Sloan Lake near Handies Peak in the San Juan Mountains of Hinsdale County.

Please Click On Photo to Enlarge

As you can read on the placard in the photo collage above the Lake Fork of the Gunnison is one of the many rivers and streams that flow into the Colorado River and travel 1,500 miles to the Sea of Cortez in the Baja of Mexico.

Most of the time as we drove along The Siver Thread Byway we were one of the very few cars on the road.  Much of the land is wilderness, except for an occasional cattle ranch.  

At another stop, we read the ill-fated expedition lead by the guide Alferd Packer in 1874, who was hired to lead five other men from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Pinos Agency Gunnison, Colorado.  The Utes warned them that the snow would be treacherous but they kept going.  Sadly they became lost in the San Juan Mountains and only Alfred came out of the mountains in Spring alive, and he was suspiciously well-fed. Was it cannibalism? Read the entire story and see the placard above in detail on this link.

Please Click On the Photos Above to Enlarge

One of my favorite placards on the byway told the story of the "People Of the Shining Mountains"--the Utes.  All of Colorado was once their land and they called the Rockies the Shining Mountains in their native language.

 

The Silver Thread Scenic and Historic Byway was a beautiful and interesting drive and one of many scenic byways we have driven on in Colorado. To see those other drives click on this link and keep scrolling through 38 other posts!  We hope to drive many more in the future as there are 25 byways in Colorado, and 13 of them have been designated by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation as America's Byways, which gives Colorado more national designations than any other state!

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I'm linking this post to some of the following blog events:

 Mosaic Monday, Blue Monday, Through My Lens Monday, Hearth, and Soul Link Party, You Are the Star Blog Hop, Inspire Me Monday, Home Matters Linky Party,  Good Random Fun, Nature Notes, Grand Social, Travel Photos, Travel Tuesday, Happiness Is Homemade, Create, Bake, Make, Our World Tuesday, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, Tuesdays With A Twist, Let's Keep In Touch, Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday,  Party in Your PJ's, Wordless Wednesday, Oh My Heartsie Girl's Wonderful Wednesday, Wednesday My Corner of the World, Wonderful Wednesday, Signs2,  Little Things Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Brians Thankful Thursday, Thursday Encouraging Hearts and Home,  Thursday Thinking Out Loud, Thursday Favorite Things, Friday With Friends, Friendship Fridays, A Morning Cup of Joe, Friday Features Linky Party, Skywatch Friday, Weekend Roundup,  Pink Saturday, Saturday Sparks, Saturday Critters, Sunday on Silverado