The leaves are beginning to fall without making much color change here, but then North Texas isn't noted for it's colorful autumn weather.

The most amazing autumn color I saw on a road trip, Joe, was when I drove from Texas to Washington, taking various secondary state highways past national parks. By the time I got to Colorado's Berthoud Pass (whew!) via Route 40 and heading through Utah to Dinosaur and other parks, I was seeing glorious high plateau stands of birch or aspen with white trunks and vivid yellow along the edges of rivers or lakes. I cut over to 395 in Northern California and 139 to 39 to stay on the high plains to the east of Lassen and Shasta and the incredible beauty of those high elevation lakes and forests. I'm pretty sure that was the trip where I also went up through Central Oregon, east of the Cascades, and at Goldendale, Washington, headed up over Blewett Pass that was simply perfect, no other traffic, glorious sunny day, black road with bright yellow lines and trees that were just as yellow as the stripe, but living things stirring in the light breeze in all their glory. I finally joined up with I-90 and headed over Snoqualmie into Seattle. I must have made this drive in about 1983, so some things will have changed along the route, but the terrain, the season, the routes are all still there. Think about a tour like that, Joe.

I didn't take any photos, I wanted to just look at it all and remember the beauty. Sometimes when you mediate through a lens the memories aren't as clear because you're unintentionally letting the film do your remembering.

Another perk of visiting Dinosaur that time of year - it was empty. And I drove up to a picnic area (I can't find it on the map but the drive off of the highway of a mile or so took me to a perch perhaps 1000 feet above the valley) where there was no sound. Nothing. No wind, no birds, no insects, no other people. It was like a roar in my ears, my brain trying to hear something up there. My own breathing, my footsteps, sounds as I prepared lunch. As I continued the drive it was hunting season so I was careful as I drove into the Heber City area and through that canyon, there were lots of trucks and hunters in orange vests. I had my fingers crossed that none of them would be shooting near or across the highway.

Perhaps next time I head up to Washington I'll try to reproduce that route.