I will not be posting this week due to a situation. (Not everything in life is bloggable. . .)
Fret not! I’ll be back when things are settled a bit.
Shhhh. . .going quiet
Walking in Visalia
I spent a day in Visalia with a friend, and we walked around downtown, marveling* at the changes from when I worked there 35+ years ago.
We snooped. Climbed to the roof and took photos all directions.
It wasn’t clear enough to see the mountains to the east. I realize these photos will mean nothing to people who aren’t from the area.
We marvelled at a building that has been completely remodeled since the olden days when I worked nearby. the owner happened by at the time, recognized both of us, and gave us a tour. I didn’t take any photos inside.
We also ran into another friend of ours. Visalia is the Big Town, the county seat, but Tulare County is still small enough to feel at home, even in the Big Town.
*I have verbed** the word “marvel”, which may actually be legitimate.
**And now I have verbed the word “verb”, which definitely does not pass a grammar test.
More Walking in Three Rivers
I painted that view with that tree about 15 years ago.
There is a yard that we can count on to have wonderful fall colors each year.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JB! (IF YOU ARE STILL ONE OF MY TENS OF READERS AND EVEN IF YOU AREN’T)
Walking in Three Rivers
I have become (and am becoming) friends with a group of bloggers from all over. Elisabeth in Nova Scotia puts together something called “Cool Bloggers Walking Club” each October, and the participating folks send her photos of their walks each week. Her idea is to get us all moving our bodies for a minimum of 10 minutes a day. I am the only blogger I know in real life, and it helps me to get to know other folks who blog regularly. It is good to have other people to learn from (and occasionally help, but they usually know much more than me.)
Today and tomorrow I’ll show you some photos from recent walks. (Yes, I am still working. . . but there isn’t anything bloggable about it at the moment.)
That’ll do for now. Sorry it isn’t about Mineral King. That’s a seasonal topic, and that season is over for this year.
Final Mineral King Walk of 2025
We went walking up the Mineral King valley in search of brilliant fall color. This was easy to find, so many yellows, but of course we wanted oranges and reds too.
The cottonwoods are yellow; it is the aspen which turn orange and red, so for stronger colors one must walk farther up the trail than rather just hanging out near the pack station.
We spotted some orange through the cottonwoods, so Hiking Buddy and I continued on up the trail while the men turned back to begin tackling the chores of cabin closing. Not only do they close our cabins, they also close cabins for neighbors and are responsible for the water system for our little neighborhood, which they take very seriously.
That orange turned out to be a little disappointing. It was only the very edges of these few trees. (You might have to squint to see it here.)
But these trees were electric!
Franklin Creek was so tame, especially compared to my August adventure with K.
Each year in the fall I am determined to learn what shrub turns red. In the summer when it is green, I don’t notice it and don’t remember my annual autumnal intention.
Somewhere over there is where K and I were scrambling through the rain, cold, and hail to find our way home. We knew where we were going but not our exact route.
One last look at the Park’s packing shed.
WHAT? How did I miss this piece of brilliant advice all summer??
What I want to know is this: will a bear leave if I simply shout “BEAT IT, BOZO!” or do I have to say “GET OUT OF HERE BEAR!”? Who taught the bears to obey this command?
The next day was closing day. It was very cold, low 40s while we completed our chores and buttoned it all up for the season.
This is how it looked back toward Mineral King from partway down the road. Snow was expected up there. We closed in the nick of time. (Who is this “nick”?
Just for fun, this is the scenic spot where we stopped for some lunch on the way home.
It is always a bittersweet time. While we believe that summer goes way too fast, it is always a relief to be home, to stop driving that wretched road, to be able to go to church on the weekends, to keep up with emails and texts, to not be continually living in flux with duffle bags in plain sight, and to not worry/wonder about the water system or bear break-ins (in both locations.) Besides, we miss our cats.
Mineral King Fall Meanderings
Today is just photos of a fall afternoon in mid-October in Mineral King.
Tomorrow, a walk up to Franklin Creek, the final Mineral King report for the year.
Mineral King’s Nature Trail
If you read my posts last week, you saw the variety of fall color in Mineral King from year to year. This week I will show you all 2025, mid-October. Not much chit-chat, just some photos. Today is a walk up the Nature Trail, which originates at the upper end of Cold Springs campground.
The trees weren’t all brilliant yellow, but it was a brilliant clear sunny afternoon.
Happy Birthday, JC! (I’m still older than you.)
Closing Weekend in Mineral King
To clarify, Mineral King is still open to the public, officially closing in another week (sorry, don’t know the actual date). Trail Guy and I closed our cabin over the weekend, and just in time too. This week will be full of catching up at home and in the studio, so I’ll just fill this week of posts with Mineral King photos and chit-chat.
Heading up the hill, I did a quick drive-by of looking upstream from the Oak Grove Bridge. Supposedly this fall is when the county will begin tearing up the landscape upstream to prepare the way for a new bridge. The old one will become a pedestrian bridge only, not that there is any place to walk on the road. It just happens to be a beautiful historical structure in Tulare County, which doesn’t have very many of those.
How it looked on Friday, just aiming upstream into the sun. Next time we drive over it on the way up the hill (unless we make an unplanned trip) this will be all torn up.
We passed these types of scenic views on the way up. The road construction continues through the fall, and I don’t know when they’ll finish this year. The project is supposed to last through 2027.
Because of the fires in 2020, 2021, and 2024, there are clear views to Sawtooth (unless it is cloudy or smoky or smoggy or. . . )
Trail Guy and the Farmer stopped at the cabin owners’ dumpster to see if it was full. Hiking Buddy and I opted to walk up the Nature Trail to our cabins. (What? Would you rather hang around the dumpster, discussing its capacity, waiting for the dudes to make a decision and then have a ride up the final mile?)
More on fall color along the Nature Trail tomorrow.
More Mineral King in October
The photos from Friday and these photos today were all taken within the first 2 weeks of October each year. I just arbitrarily grabbed different ones from my very extensive photo collection (34,000? maybe 36,000 now?) so you can see the variety from year to year.
I did not choose my very best or think about an equal distribution of scenes. Instead, this is just a random selection to give you a sense of the inconsistency from autumn to autumn.
2025 fall photos will come later this week.
Mineral King in October
I stayed home last weekend. Our cabin is a summer residence in a summer place, and I am very ready to be home for awhile. So, I went through my photo archives, and today’s post will be random October photos of Mineral King from past years.
That was interesting. Let’s do a few more next week.