Engineer Pass at Another Season

Early in the summer we did an ATV ride to Engineer Pass, when there was still 10 ft. of snow at the roadside in one spot. We did a repeat of this ride in early August to see the scenery in a different summer decor. Where once dandelions bloomed in a riot of yellow, we see only their windblown seedheads spread in drifts and awaiting their chance at life next June. The predominant flower now are these wild daisies, their color more and more intensely purple as we gain altitude. In June we saw surreal snowscapes all along the road-to-mountains expanses; these slopes are blanketed now with alpine tundra wildflowers.

The temperature at 12000+ ft. was cool enough to demand hat and jacket; clouds of flies and other insects followed us to our every stop, making lunch a challenge. Bugs tried to beat us to our sandwiches. We battled them, unsuccessfully, and finally bolted down what we could and beat an early retreat.
The new growth on the blue spruce is indeed blue; the cones are healthy and thick this year.
Giant waterfalls still course down the mountainsides, testament to the continuing snowmelt at the top elevations.
Young aspens remain bowed from the large winter snowfall (200" down in town at L.C.) and this particular area obviously suffered an avalanche; on the opposite side of the road a grove of young aspens lie broken off at about 3-4 ft. from the ground.

At the top we see remnants of last winter's snowfall, and new snow is not far behind.

Town temperatures are in the 30's at night now; people who know tell me some of the flowers at American Basin show signs of freeze.

The clouds, tundra flowers and changing colors make a feast for the eyes,
and the mountains seem even more rugged and intimidating at this season. We expected snow last night (Aug. 16) on the visible mts., but we didn't get the moisture that blanketed the areas more northeast of us. Today's been blustery and cold, and we saw wild canaries along the creekside early this morning, a first sighting. Appears that the birds are migrating through on the way south!