Alpenglow lights up the snow-dusted summit of Mount Shasta.
For months, warm weather has been slowly melting all of Mount Shasta’s snow. Now, at the end of September, temperatures dropped and precipitation arrived, finally creating the conditions where the upper reaches of Mount Shasta were once again covered with snow. After a brutal summer filled with smoke and fire, the coming of autumn, and all the cooler weather and rain and snow that that entails is a most welcome advent.
This is an especially happy development since the Delta Fire had jumped the fire lines and was flaring up in remarkable fashion. A significant amount of smoke was spewed by the renewed fire and it was a frustrating coda to the summer of conflagration. Fortunately, the knowledge that rain was just a few days off made enduring this last bit of haziness a little easier. If nothing else, the smoke did make for some unusual sunsets.
Not your typical Mount Shasta scenery.
Sunday morning was initially wet, with clouds and rain persisting until it was nearly noon. At that time the storm began to break up, the skies cleared, and by evening there was barely any clouds around Mount Shasta. It was the perfect time to get out and take my family for a short hike to watch the sunset light on the mountain that was once again white. It was a lonely, beautiful evening, filled with some unsual sights and an incredible view. We were all grateful that the summer is finally ending, fall is here and that Mount Shasta was once again white. We have much to be thankful for.