3 seasons at Lake Maria

Fall weekends have sucked a bit this year. Right about when hiking/camping should be at its best, we've had rainy weekends. This weekend brought the earliest snowfall in over 20 years, unfortunately right when the leaves were peaking, which means the fall colors are almost over before they really got started.

I was determined to get out on Saturday afternoon to see how things looked at Lake Maria, despite a bit of a late night on Friday. It was a good time and interesting to see essentially 3 seasons at the same time in some places. Lots of green grass and leaves, some decent fall colors (mostly on the ground) and a bit of snow mixed in.

The park was fairly quiet - I guess the overcast skies, wind, cold and snow convinced most people to stay home. Nothing real exciting to report from the hike except a family of swans on the backwaters of one of the lakes. At least I think they're swans, I suppose they could be snow geese or something, I'm not a bird expert. I'll call them swans because it sounds cooler.

And that's about it. Disappointing fall colors, cold temps but still a nice day outside. Hopefully we'll have some warmer temps soon and time for more hiking before all the leaves are gone and winter really sets in.



More photos are here.