The location of a proposed personal and RV storage project off Airport Road, the third storage project heard by the Planning Commission in as many months.
I took a drive up into our local Santa Rosa Mountains earlier today just to enjoy the fall colors. You might think it’s a lot of effort just to see the trees change; but, I have always figured that you only get so many perfect days to behold God’s creation and I don’t want to miss a single one of them. I moved up here at 30, and I figured if I lived to be 75, I’d get to see these sights during 45 seasons, which really only meant that I had already missed too many. For years, Fred and I would pack a picnic and take his folks and Patrice up to soak it all in. Today it was my mom and Patrice who joined me.
I had baked some shredded beef empanadas yesterday, and I brought them along with some ice cold tea little for mom, Patrice and I. We stopped at our cabin just to look around and make sure all was well, relit the propane fridge then continued on over the top into the Martin Basin. We haven’t had any hard freezes to ruin the color or drop the leaves and our Aspen groves are spectacular. I’ve always thought the golden Aspen leaves look like sparkling gold coins. Once the trees start dropping leaves, the multi colored blanket they leave behind is so beautiful. I may have said before that driving down the backside of the Hinkey summit road this time of year, through the sunlight kissed Aspen groves reminds me of something out of Camelot, it’s so pretty and the colors are so vivid that it’s almost otherworldly.
On the way up, we saw countless quail and chukar, quite a few deer, and hoped to hear the elk whistling at Lye Creek campground but settled for a chat with a delightful gentleman named Cal who was out training some young hunting dogs.
It’s hard to overstate how beautiful our local mountains are, and while I never feel like we are completely safe from fire danger, my heart felt a great relief that so far, our beautiful landscape has escaped for another year.
I sure hope that if you get the chance, you give your soul the gift of a drive up into your local mountains. Truly, every range and every northern county has spectacular sights, sounds and experiences. Do it soon, while the colors are at their best, take a picnic and share it with friends or family. We went on a weekday when hunting rigs aren’t lining every roadway and it was a peaceful, wonderful experience.
We only took a couple doggers up with us, my mom’s white German shepherd and Patrice’s new puppy. Jasper ate the most empanadas, but Rosie grabbed a few and on balance, we all got plenty and came home smiling.
Kris Stewart is a rancher in Paradise Valley, Nevada.