The wife, youngest daughter and I drove up to Hope Valley this afternoon to see about how far along the aspen are in turning autumn colors. There were a couple of individual trees that were about half yellow, but that was all. No matter, it was a gorgeous day to be in the high country.
The first image is Caples Lake with Round Top in the distant background.
Interesting texture on this juniper.
Red Lake, looking east from Carson Pass.
Hope Valley, with Freel Peak in the far distance.
Reflection in the Carson River. The daughter saw a very large trout swimming slowly by at this spot.
Coming back and looking west over Caples Lake, you can see the billowing smoke from the King Fire, on the South Fork of the American River. At this time it is only 10% contained and is threatening 500 homes. The smoke is going all the way over the Sierras and annoying Larry in Reno. This one will probably be burning a week at least.
What a wonderful spot to spend a few days - or the rest of a long life. It would be better if you had a few war lances, a herd of spotted ponies and no pale faces -- but we were all born in the wrong time, weren't we?
ReplyDeleteYes we were.
DeleteBeautiful country,
Deleteno spotted ponies for me, give me a good big bay...
Many of the pre-white man wars in the West were fought by counting coup or by stealing ponies. There were never the numbers present (as there were on the East Coast) for genocidal wars. I'm not saying that people didn't kill each other. That's been pretty common since Cain ambushed Able. Women died in child birth, snakes bit people, horses threw men who were trying to break them, etc.
DeleteI don't suggest that it was ideal, but there was a freedom available then that is impossible now. If you (and your band) tried to live wild and free anywhere in the US, you would be hunted down and "civilized". Your children, who had been home-schooled in the forests anthills would be taken from you. You would be prosecuted and persecuted for migrating across barbed wire as the winter approached -- and with the buffalo dead, those hunts would not be available since the few buffalo left all 'belong to somebody'.
Just a few thoughts from a guy who is a sell-out, buys food from the store and drives a pick-up truck.
I don't know. I live in the former hunting ground of the Iroquois Confederation. The Beaver Wars pretty much exterminated tribal life hereabouts. It was, like your very nice pictures, an empty land. It wasn't a very nice place to live though. One needed a war machine to survive.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference, unfortunately, between what we like to imagine life was like, and the reality.
DeleteI like your reality.
Delete