Through the lens: Winter’s coming

Sep 26, 2012 | 0 comments

On Sunday my housemate and I rented a car from an extremely generous local in town (she wanted to let us use it for free, but finally accepted a few bucks!), which afforded us an opportunity to spend the day in the mountains. The forecast called for freezing temperatures and rain, but once we got out of town the precipitation turned to snow flurries and we found ourselves cruising through an early winter wonderland. 

With all day to spare, we took our time exploring the white-blanketed tundra until we were too cold to feel our fingers and faces, thanks the biting wind driving snow at us sideways. 
Frosty leaf

Brand new white carpet

Pippy Longstocking impersonation? Also getting pummeled
in the face by blowing snow.
We built a tiny tundra snow man

My snow angel

Ice formations on the grass

The cliched sideview-mirror-shot

Huge flocks of ptarmigan, beginning the winter molt

Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan freaking out

Beautiful roadside creek

Road to Woolly Lagoon becoming inaccessible

Eventually the road became too snowy for us to comfortably drive on, so we turned around and headed back to Nome, where autumn is still the predominant season.

Willow leaves

Remnants of an abandoned reindeer corral

Some kind of old scale

Water droplets in an old bucket

Nome’s one and only tree, decorated year round

The signs of winter are all around now, from the noticeably dropping temperatures, to little snow flurries, to seeing fewer people in town. On the upside, I think I’m getting more used to the weather — When I was walking home for lunch today, I was thinking the temperature didn’t feel too bad if it weren’t for the wind; then I checked the thermometer: 32 degrees. Ha.

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