First snow of the year

We got a real nice taste of winter today at Dolly Sods Wilderness. I had checked the forecast days before and knew we had to get up there for an appetizer. Ashley and I had a swell time taking in the crisp air and sugar coated landscape, as you can see below, all the best stuff happens at altitude:

We hiked for about 3 hours, doing a loop that took us alongside the red creek and many nice red spruce groves. The ecosystem recovery at Dolly Sods is still in full swing, meadows are slowly returning to forest and most of the trees are young. It sure is a tough area for tree regeneration, the seedlings are competing with a dense layer of sphagnum moss and vaccinium, plus the environmental constraints of a mountain top plateau. You can see the flagging that occurs on the top of the red spruces in the pano photo from the constant wind and frozen precipitation.

Snow makes any scene that much better, particularly at waters edge.


It clung to every tree limb and leaf, setting the tone for a nice time (: