termination dust

When snow comes to the mountains that won't be melting until spring, it's called termination dust, the official end of the summer. There is no true official day but all agree that it has happened by now. The snow gets lower on the mountain every day it seems and soon it will be on the ground at the Nature Center. This is Polar Bear Mt. but the polar bear shape is no long visible. Only a few more days for us here, so I put on my raincoat and headed four miles down the trail to the Perch.

First sighting was this lovely bunch of bear scat fill of bright red cranberries. Yes, I carry bear spray. No, I never had a close up encounter!

There are lots of grouse on the trail and it's especially fun to see the males with their tails fanned strutting their stuff.

The fall colors are great, but the grey skies don't show the termination dust effect very well in photos. Nice walk; good scenery; time to move south!