Y.B.

So, as a reminder, this was all still in late June...

And on this day, Zou and I drove to a now well-known spot.  Only we didn't make it all the way - snow stopped us.  But that's OK, it was plenty fun and pretty right up till there anyways.

 There's a section of the road that's more exciting - at least it used to be.  It's still neato, but it used to be a bit more challenging.  With the increased popularity and travel of late, some of the more attention-getting lumps and bumps have apparently been smoothed out.  Bummer.

 If you're really stupid, you can still get yourself killed here (there's still a good enough drop-off into the creek below), but what used to be the more nervy part of this road is gone now.

 And do you know why all these cool roads exist in the first place?  Almost all of them were created to access mining claims/operations.  But that was pretty long ago - as this tattered old building can attest...

 The road to adventure...

 It still throws me, how these used to be secret, hidden gems.  Then, with the internet, they became known.  Now, as I've mentioned, with Facebook and youtube, not only is virtually everyone familiar with them, they've most of them been there, done that!!!  :(

Yes, a double waterfall. 

 It's a pretty powerful current on a steep slope with slippery rocks under all that gushing water, but fortunately Zouey is listening to me - this is not the place to go wading!!

 Our pretty primrose again...

 Beautiful field of corn lilies.

 And that's where we parked.

 And this is why.  You can see the evidence of other folks who either skied or snowmobiled up, but most walked like we did!  And I'm sure there were more good-sized patches of snow up and around the bend!

 Zouey flying through the corn lilies!

 It's pretty downstream...

 and upstream too!

Can you see the snow squiggles?  Yep, extreme sports folks are hiking up and skiing down almost all these peaks nowadays...

 Just one part demonstrating why good clearance is recommended...  This is a bit reminiscent of our driveway though...

 Oh look!  Who's that?!  It's one of my marmot friends, running off to greener pastures - it IS greener on the other side, you know.

 Hey Marmie!  Don't run away, it's only me!  (they're so cute when they run though, they flap their tails up and down - maybe that helps them build up speed   ;)

 OK, I know you can see one guy here easily, but can you spot the other?  And you think that fellow blends - try to find the 40 pikas in the picture!  (just kidding, but they have even better camo and are tiny!  It's almost impossible to locate them unless you see movement - and of course, hearing all these critters' high-pitched voices helps!  The marmots are also called 'whistle pigs'...)

 

And once again, the road back down.  In the used-to-be fun section...