If you're thinking about hiking our part of the Continental Divide Trail, you might want to wait another week.

Or more.

There's still plenty of snow up on top.

Yes, the pilot and I were flying again today. On our next-to-last flight to locate our ten collared elk. We found all ten again. Most right where we expected them, but one gal in the forest took off to the west, settling in a draw in the sage with exactly three aspen trees.

Alone. Save, perhaps, for her calf.

The Interstate gal was well into our neighboring state to the south, and the trans-divide gal was back on the Atlantic side. But these cow elk had a lush, green world to enjoy this summer.

Not everything was green. The bugkill in the forest is expanding quickly now, leaving large expanses of dying, red trees.

Next year, they'll be large expanses of dead, grey skeletons of trees.

The river valley sky was full of summer storms, forcing us west to fly home along the spine of the Divide itself.

Have you ever wondered what sheets of rain look like from the inside?

Like this...

I will miss these flights.