20120912  My Favorite Time of Year

All summer long more popular outdoor vacation destinations in the West teem.  Kids return to school in August these days it seems, so visitation drops then but the Labor Day holiday remains. 

Monday of Labor Day weekend begins my favorite time of the year.  With places like Grand Canyon and Yellowstone as possible exceptions, outdoor destinations are much less visited. Yet even high in the mountains this late in the year the weather can be fine for another 6 weeks or so.

This 12th day of September finds Ann and I near the Hells Canyon Dam along the Snake River on the Oregon/Idaho border. 




Well, not really the Snake River.  The dam has created a 20+ mile snake of a reservoir. 


Downstream of the dam the river returns.  Anyway, cliffs rise on either side more than 4000’. 


From our campsite I can literally take a single giant step and be in the water.  We are parked on a pad built as part of the dam construction over 40 years ago.  Surely 100 vehicles could park here, though they would be crowded.  From the looks of things, MANY vehicles are parked here at a busier time.

Right now, as the sun sets, the only vehicles parked here are ours, Moby and Alice.  They sit in the shade of the canyon bottom while the cliff tops blaze in the sun.  A warm breeze blows downstream after a day when the temperature reached 87 Fahrenheit.  The only sounds we hear are fish jumping, water lapping, and the wind through the cottonwoods.  What a wonderful spot at my favorite time of the year.