Adventures in Cloudland

Friday's adventures were… well, adventurous, to say the least! On our way to the Moonworts, we were enjoying a pleasant but cloudy day driving up Squaw Pass, at least until the hail started. It came down so hard that we finally decided to pull over and watch. While we sat near the road, we watched sunlight hitting the Continental Divide in the distance through a screen of Englemann Spruce and Subalpine Fir. That puts us, probably at an elevation of 10,000 ft, give or take…

If you click to enlarge this shot, you can see, I think, the hail bouncing on the horizon at the edge of the road (which is the entire foreground) in front of the spruce trees. Sun is still shining on the Continental Divide in the background. It was very entertaining… that, and the noise it was making on the roof of the truck. We estimated it as “pea-size” or smaller, no golf ball hail this time. Unusual in the high country, but hail is pretty normal in June at the lower elevations.

After a brief pause, we reached the aptly named Cloudland, and checked out what we could see of the resident plants. As the hail was small and less forceful than it might have been, it did little damage to the plants we were looking for, other than, of course, covering them up! Here's a little mustard peeking out. Personally, I think they were grateful for the moisture—in whatever form!


We always say, in Colorado you can have any weather you want--you just have to know where to go for it! When I arrived home, I discovered our dryness had broken as well-- we had a good rain here at home while I was gone, and you could almost hear the soaked earth sighing in relief! A second rain last night more than makes up for my lament of last week. Thanks, Haiku friends, for all the good wishes!