Algae on Cascade Springs, Utah

 My best guess is that this is some kind of algae. The white portion of the plant is sticking out of the water. This photo was taken in late October at Cascade Springs, Utah when there had been several days of severe frost. If you look closely you can see that the algae in the water turns white when above the surface. 

Late Fall Leaves in the Wasatch Mountains

 Most of the leaves are gone in the high country of the Wasatch Mountains but this hillside had a particularly spectacular second bloom of color. We love to get high up in the mountains You would never know that on the other side of these mountains is the largest concentration of population in Utah. 

Bending in the Winter's Snows

 

Here at about 8000 feet above sea level, the winter snow is deep enough to bend the trees as they grow. You can see that all the trees are bent towards the downhill slope. The amount of bend depends on the slope because they all get the same amount of snowfall. This image was taken on the Alpine Loop in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah but you can see the same bent tree effect all over the world in the high mountains. 

Waiting for the snow

 

This grove of aspen trees has lost its leaves and all the flowers and bushes on the ground have turned brown from the cold but there is still no snow. It is impressive to see these white trees against the dark blue sky. It is a beautiful day here at about 8000 feet up in the Wasatch Mountains along the Alpine Loop from Provo Canyon to American Fork Canyon. 

Limes

 

I lived in the Salt River Valley for most of my life. We were surrounded by citrus trees everywhere I lived once we moved to the edge of the city. We had oranges, grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, and sometimes limes. Unfortunately, the lime trees were overly sensitive to frost and would freeze every few years. Now that we live in Utah, we have to buy citrus in a store but we can't justify paying the prices they charge since we spent so many years basically getting all our citrus for the cost of watering and caring for the trees. 

Deer Creek Reservoir, Utah

 

Except for the higher mountains, most of Utah is very dry and technically a desert. Here is the current definition of a desert from the USGS article "What is a desert?"

There are almost as many definitions of deserts and classification systems as there are deserts in the world. Most classifications rely on some combination of the number of days of rainfall, the total amount of annual rainfall, temperature, humidity, or other factors. In 1953, Peveril Meigs divided desert regions on Earth into three categories according to the amount of precipitation they received. In this now widely accepted system, extremely arid lands have at least 12 consecutive months without rainfall, arid lands have less than 250 millimeters of annual rainfall, and semiarid lands have a mean annual precipitation of between 250 and 500 millimeters. Arid and extremely arid land are deserts, and semiarid grasslands generally are referred to as steppes.

In case you don't automatically convert metric measurements, here are the equivalents: 250 millimeters = about 10 inches and, of course, 500 mm is about 20 inches. Heber Valley where the Deer Creek Reservoir is located gets about 20 inches of rain a year making it right on the edge of the semi-arid definition. Where I live in Provo, we get about 18 inches of rain a year. The U.S. average rainfall across the entire country is about 38 inches of rain a year. However, currently, Utah County, where we live and the location of the Deer Creek Reservoir are both under an Exceptional Drought. The entire state has had less than an inch of rain in the last 60 days. 

Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

 

A trip to Washington D.C. would not be complete without a visit to the Arlington National Cemetery. Here is a short description from the official website. 

The Office of Army Cemeteries (OAC), consisting of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia and Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., is under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army. The secretary of the Army consolidated authorities and created the executive director position to effectively and efficiently develop, operate, manage and administer the program.

Arlington National Cemetery conducts between 27 and 30 funeral services each weekday and between six and eight services on Saturday. The grounds honor those who have served our nation and provide a sense of beauty and peace for our guests. Rolling green hills are dotted with trees that are hundreds of years in age, complementing the gardens found throughout the cemetery's 639 acres. This impressive landscape serves as a tribute to the service and sacrifice of every individual laid to rest within these hallowed grounds.

I have been to the cemetery several times but on this trip, I took the opportunity to walk through most of the cemetery in the beautiful Fall weather.