Our trees do not turn to the colors of the hardwood forests in the East, but alder leaves do turn yellow and the alpine tundra in the mountains above Sitka turns red, gold and brown while the spruce, hemlock and cedar lower on the slopes retain their different shades of green. On Tuesday the skies unexpectedly cleared, the weather bureau was caught off guard, and we had sun through Wednesday afternoon. I got in the jeep and drove 2,000 feet up Harbor Mountain both to watch the new weather front come in from the Gulf of Alaska and walk through the alpine tundra’s fall colors. The Forest Service has done a lot of work on the trails since the summer. There are new trails to new lookouts, they are graveled or have rocks as stepping stones. This is more a micro experience than a macro one, as one type of spiky grass turns yellow from the outside in. At this point in the cycle the grass has green roots and gold tips. Much of the ground cover is rust colored and with some of the ground cover leaves turning scarlet along with some of the fall berries. Suzi was at a friend’s home for the afternoon so I had my own quiet Alaska experience.
Great pix, as usual,, Rich – one ething. Did you kknow the Russian word for harbor is Gavan? Starrigavan means “Old Harbor” (these little blinking dots are very annoying. )
Best,
Dee
And Gavan Hill is Harbor Hill. I used to be able to communicate in Russian but that was a long time ago. What little blinking dots? Is it something on the webpage that I don’t see?