Fire! Seeing the Aftermath in Berry Creek

Last summer's 20,000 plus acre Berry Creek fire might deter you from venturing to that area of Grand Teton National Park for a hike.

2016 Berry Creek fire

In fact, it is a fascinating and beautiful place to hike. Situated on the northwest side of Jackson Lake, it is one of the more remote areas of the park, but well worth the effort to get there. Hike eight miles from the trailhead on Grassy Lake Road to the Berry Creek patrol cabin,

and you will cross through terrain with different fire histories: some that has not burned in recent times, some that burned only in the early 2000s,

some that burned only in 2016,

and some that burned during both fires.

Fire changes landscapes in fascinating ways. It opens up views that one would not ordinarily see.

It leaves evidence of its incredible intensity.

But it also makes way for rebirth and regrowth.

I found the new growth astonishingly beautiful, especially because it stands out so dramatically against the blackened trees and ground.

Fireweed

Berry Creek and Owl Creek are notable for offering a very different aspect of the park from the more popular regions closer to the high peaks. The trails are gentler and the canyons more open than, for example, Cascade and Paintbrush Canyons. They are also far less traveled.

Owl Creek

Along Owl Creek

Besides hiking in from Grassy Lake Road (here is a map with a route that covers both Berry Creek and Owl Creek), you can also reach the area by canoeing across Jackson Lake from the Lizard Creek campground. Note that this photo is from the parking area south of Lizard Creek - due to closures around the August 21 solar eclipse we were not allowed to launch our canoe from the campground.

If you plan to canoe, be warned that Jackson Lake can be quite windy, especially in the late afternoon, making the crossing dangerous. Should you encounter strong winds, you can take the longer, but calmer, way by hugging the shore all the way around the north end of the lake.

Happy trails.

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Dinosaur National Monument

Now that fall is nearly here, it's time for me to try to catch up on all of my summer activities, starting with a short visit to Dinosaur National Monument. Straddling northern Utah and Colorado, and encompassing the Green and Yampa Rivers, this 200,000 acre monument is a relatively quiet part of the National Park Service system. Best known, naturally, for its rich deposits of fossilized dinosaur bones,

Morrison Formation (Jurassic Era)

 it also offers dramatic hiking trails,

 and stunning scenery.

Green River Canyon

We spent a morning hiking the Desert Voices and Sounds of Silence Trails.

They pack all kinds of natural wonders into a relatively short distance, from enormous eolian sandstones,

to otherworldly plants,

and a maze of trails winding through low hills. Fortunately the trails are well marked.

Upper slopes offer wide views,

while stream beds with enormous old trees provide shady resting spots.

Later in the day we drove to the end of Harpers Corner Road, then walked one and a half miles to the end of Harpers Corner Trail to take in this grand view of the Green River, 

and hurried back to avoid getting caught in the storm that was headed our way.

On our final day, as we were on our way north to Jackson Hole, we took the time to drive around to the north side of the monument. With a name like "The Gates of Lodore," we guessed that it must be a special place. It didn't disappoint, though we were sorry not to be getting into rafts for a long expedition on the river.

If you are planning to spend a night or two in the area, you might might think that Dinosaur, Colorado, is the place to stay. After all, it has its own U.S. Post Office,

and a restaurant that stills serves meals.

Sadly, most of the town is closed up for good.

For more options, drive 40 miles west to Vernal, where you will find fully operational hotels and restaurants and be greeted by all manner of dinosaur.

Family Time in Florida

Earlier this month I spent a couple of weeks with my parents in Florida. Life is pretty quiet where they live, especially during the summer when the heat and humidity keep people indoors for most of the day. It was a good time to work on some knitting and hand sewing projects.

Regular readers may remember that in January I purchased several different kinds of yarn as candidates for a Fair Isle sweater. I am making pillow covers instead of small swatches. In addition to knowing how each yarn will look made up as a sweater, I will have something useful, and reasonably attractive, for my efforts. 

I finished this one while in Florida, using up almost all of five quarter skeins of Hill Country Weaver's incredibly soft Merino Alpaca. The yarn is a pleasure to work with and yields stitch definition that is well-suited to Fair Isle. But at $35 for a full skein it will be kind of pricy to make an entire sweater. I'll just have to see how the other options turn out.

For anyone interested in Fair Isle knitting, I highly recommend the Philosopher's Wool technique, which can be found here. Thanks to Lucy at Quilting with the Past for pointing it out to me two years ago. The strands are worked in as you go, resulting in a back without loose bits to get caught in fingernails or jewelry, and a smooth front that doesn't pucker.

I also made significant progress on my Westering Women quilt top. I've gotten all the sashing attached and the blocks sewn together and now just need to decide on a border. Maybe I can find  something to temper the heavy dose of cheddar in the sashing.

Although I spent a lot of time indoors in Florida, I did get out enough to get a couple of shots of the local color. I spotted this little boat while walking around one morning in the nearby downtown, which is really an outdoor mall.

I enjoyed watching a pair of sandhill cranes that frequented my parents' backyard. Their red faces and orange eyes are rather dramatic.

25 Years

Quilts have a long tradition of being made to commemorate important events. Births, weddings, graduations, and even deaths have been marked with lovingly stitched pieces. This is as true today as ever, and encompasses quilts of modern design as much as those of traditional design.

Earlier this month I completed a "modern" quilt to celebrate a 25th anniversary. I won't discuss how late the presentation was relative to the actual event, except to say that I found it a tad daunting to design a modern quilt for a couple in which the husband is an architect who specializes in modern, and exquisitely crafted, homes, and the wife is a former advertising executive with a great sense of style.

I discarded several ideas before settling on this simple graphic design of twenty five blocks as a subtle reference to the couple's years together.

Funny thing about this design is that, unknown to me, or at least not remembered by me, a number of years ago the wife stitched a needlepoint pillow cover with the same design! And they both share the same orangey red.

I pieced the quilt by machine and quilted it entirely by hand, echoing the shape of each triangle. Viewed up close the texture really stands out.

Viewed from a distance the bold design is more apparent.

I pieced the back from two other solid colors, pale enough not to show through the cream on the front.

In the end, it was worth taking the time to get the design right.

Summer Greens

I knit this wrap for my sweet cousin and actually had it delivered to her in time for her birthday earlier this month, one of the few times I have finished a project well before the event it was meant to celebrate.

But I got an early start, having fallen for the Raven Ridge yarn at Knit on Pearl in Jackson, Wyoming, last summer. The luxurious silk and merino blend yarn made working on this such a great pleasure that I picked it up at every opportunity and finished quickly.

As I noted the first time I knit the Calza wrap pattern, it is completely reversible, thanks to garter stitch for the body of the work and a knit one/purl one ribbed cable edging.

Raven Ridge yarns are hand dyed in Montana with colors inspired by Montana landscapes. This particular yarn color, called Wolf Lichen, is a light, variegated green that really does look like wolf lichen, which you can see growing on conifers in the western states.

Since the yarn is very much a product of the west, I'll finish this post with a few pictures from Jackson Hole, one of the west's iconic locations. The John Moulton Barn, one of the remaining structures from old homesteads along Mormon Row, is a popular spot for watching the sun rise on the high peaks.

Other Mormon Row structures may be less dramatic, but have their own charm.

The area is, of course, most famous for its natural beauty. In early summer the valley is bright with wildflowers,

 while up high the lakes may still be frozen over.

Ice and reflections on Goodwin Lake

Dramatic skies are as important to the scenery as what is on the ground. Summer storm clouds roll in from the west, usually in the afternoon.

Clouds over the Tetons, seen from the top of Snow King Mountain

Morning clouds, like these seen at Schwabacher's Landing, may portend a mostly rainy, but still beautiful, day.

May all our rainy days be filled with beauty!