Faded day...

An arctic storm slowly crept up and made its way to Colorado last Saturday with below freezing temperatures and light snow. When I opened my eyes that morning and peeked through the window, I was amazed by the light, fluffy snow that covered everything...

 

It was really cold though, so I didn't go out until later, but around 10am I finally stepped outside and headed toward the Highline Canal to walk through the trees that curve around the trail and make it look surreal...

There wasn't much snow on the ground (I think it was only 2 inches), but everything looked transformed. Everything looked faded and muted... This kind of condition doesn't happen often in Colorado and was a nice change from the first snow we experienced in November (even though it was the same 2 inches, everything looked completely different - click here to check it out - First snow...).

I walked slowly along the canal and really enjoyed the scenery.. But I also enjoyed looking closely at the leaves, needles and branches, all dressed in fluffy caps of snow...

Because of the sub-zero temperature, the snow was incredibly light... Not as heavy and wet as we usually see here in Denver (for example, two days after the first and relatively light snow that changed the landscape in Denver, a heavy snow storm brought another 4 inches and broke everything it could - After the storm).

Anyway, this Saturday was different. The air was cold, but crisp and fresh... Snowflakes were still flying, adding to the snow on the ground... but the walk was pleasant (I think mainly because I had plenty of layers to keep cold out).

I can't remember the last time the trail looked like this. Probably on foggy mornings, but we don't get those very often, so I guess there are only a couple of opportunities a year to see the colors fade and subdued... I think it just added a little bit of pleasure to the walk, and I tried to capture what my eyes saw (which was not as easy as I expected).

I didn't spend much time outside... The day was still cold, and after a while I turned around and rushed home, where I sat by the fireplace and now enjoyed the waves of heat warming my hands and feet... As much as I loved being in the snow... I didn't want to do it again ;)

The pictures were taken on January 18, 2025.