Water & Fall Light

Fall's light on the stream that runs beside and crisscrosses the Butler Gulch trail was stunning. The photos barely reflect its beauty. Sitting beside the small waterfall surrounded by a high meadow and mountains was inspiring. My sandwich tasted better! I was grateful to be alive and able to hike and enjoy such beauty. I had been on this trail only once and that was in the midst of the season when flowers bloom profusely by the trail and across the high meadow. I wondered, when a woman I had recently met suggested this hike in early September, whether I would enjoy it without the flowers. She reminded me of the water and said that it was a beautiful hike at any time. Right she was! The perfect day and the fall light enhanced an already lovely trail and high meadow and made the water dance before our eyes.

We did find flowers--the mountain gentian in the photo blooms in August and early September. Their bright deep blues caught our unsuspecting eyes as they blossomed beside the trail. But the water carried the day for me.

I have many photographs of lakes, waterfalls and streams from this summer's hikes, and want to make a photo book of my favorites. For a woman reared by a pond on our farm, a wet weather stream flowing from a spring on Dad's farm, and a creek that flowed through pastures on my best friend's family farm, my connection to water seems unlikely. However it was formed, it is strong--from the white sand beaches of the Gulf to high mountain lakes above treeline, streams meandering across meadows and those rushing down mountainsides, I am nourished, inspired, healed.

We stopped on the way down and sat near the water that rushed from above. It was mesmerizing, satisfying in a way that I can only call soul nourishing. On longer hikes there isn't time on the way down to stop and sit. I will remember (hopefully) that some hikes need only to be along stream beds where sitting and being is possible. We were alone at our lunch spot and had plenty of space as we stopped on our downward hike. It was a good time to enjoy the water and fall's exquisite light. I was blessed.