The 'veil' effect of the dusting of snow on the rock was what drew me in. Then at home, I saw the lichens standing out because of it.

Here's the text that accumulated on this gallery's opening page thrughout the year; it's here mostly to serve as my record of how these photos happened.

Once again, the first Saturday of January proved too cold to entice anyone in the photography club to join me on 1st Saturday Photo Safari, so I bided until the Audubon eagle count on January 9. We saw 8 eagles, a meager fraction of normal, but I was pleased with a few more Snake River images.

The night leading into January 30 had laid down several inches of snow, so after clearing my front walks for the mail carrier, I enjoyed giving my new Canon a moment out of its backpack. What a pleasure to have a Rebel in my hands again!

March 5 -- Hallelujah! A fine, late-winter day brought two photography club members to my house, ready for a First Saturday Photo Safari. We drove west to Massacre Rocks, pausing upriver from the park to visit the bluff overlooking the Snake River (from the river side of the fence); we walked a little in the Park before one adventurer was called home. The remaining two of us spent the rest of the sunlit day out prospecting; we found ourselves in Garden Creek Gap, as usual, too late in the afternoon to have light in the canyon, but we did what we could!

March 27 presented an opportunity for a country drive with friends, so we brought back images from new territory for most or all of us, along Hwy. 36 between Malad and Weston, mostly in Franklin County, Idaho.

April 2's First Saturday Photo Safari opened to delightful springtime sunshine; our destination was Jensen Grove Park in Blackfoot plus two other areas along the Snake River near there. And before we left, I had time to catch the bursting apricot buds in my back yard.

April 16 -- I wanted to get the blossoms of one of my cherry trees together with those of the currant that the birds planted beneath it.

May 9-11 -- An NKA (New Knowledge Adventures) trip took 34 of us to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, to Dinosaur National Monument, and to petroglyphs in Dry Fork Canyon, all in or near Vernal, Utah; coming home, we visited Eccles Dinosaur Garden in Logan, Utah.

May 28 -- Between 25 and 40 Volkswagens of all sizes and characters, including 3 Porsches, paraded out of Pocatello's Holt Arena parking lot, chugged up the hill out of town, rolled into Inkom for a brief showoff and intermission, and continued their cruise to Lava Hot Springs, where owners mingled and picnicked in the spring sunshine. The trip was sponsored by VESI (Volkswagen Enthusiasts of Southeast Idaho), and attended by folks from all over that region plus northern Utah. Wonderful fun!

May 29 -- Best friends Roger and Peggy invited me to join them for a lovely, mostly-sunny day trip along the Blackfoot River, past Blackfoot Reservoir, and onward in the rain to dinner at the hotel by the geyser in Soda Springs.

May 30 -- Marijana and I trekked up the Justice Park trail on Scout Mountain, looking for morels; she found a few; we found some other mushrooms, too, but don't know what they are.

June 13 -- Sandi and I visited the sumptuous whitewater play-and-competition area that has been built in Cascade, Idaho in the Payette River, already a world-renowned whitewater rafting and kayaking stream. The next day, we saw some of the famous natural whitewater stretches as we drove home through the rain.

June 23 -- At our photography club's annual summer picnic, we played with "assignments" in the host's yard; we were to find 'something new,' 'something you,' and 'something patriotic.'

June 24 -- Four friends found delights a-plenty at Twin Falls Park and Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls County, Idaho, and whisked into a thrift store 14 minutes before it closed; a couple of us scored treasures.

June 25 -- An Idaho Native Plant Society field trip took 5 carloads of us into the hills at the southernmost edge of our county on a glorious, early-summer morning that held off the heat to let us enjoy the wildflowers.

July 3 -- Another carload of three toured around the Blackfoot Reservoir in the opposite direction from the May 29 trip; we again found rain, but more cows and far fewer campers than had been encountered on the earlier trip.

July 9 -- Our native plant society took a trip two counties away to Palisades Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of the Snake River. En route, we enjoyed a stop at the falls of Fall Creek, also splashing into the Snake.

July 14 -- Helping a friend preview the plants along a trail for a trip in the coming weekend, I found a fine fungus on a fir tree.

July 16 -- That field trip completed, I snapped a couple of images from the trail above the early stages of Pebble Creek.

July 17-19 -- Even without my friends who had been planning to camp with me, I went to enjoy the glorious Salmon and Big Lost Rivers in Custer County, Idaho.

July 30 -- Friends helping their dog learn to enjoy water action invited me to go along.

July 31 through September 2 -- My annual 'workation' in California took me through eastern Nevada, northern California, and back home via northern Nevada, stopping at several favorite places for a day or two at a time.

October 1 was the day of Scott Kelby's World Wide Photo Walk; our club chose a local hotspot called Swore Farms, where we found corn and hay bale mazes, a greenhouse, 23 cats, a pumpkin patch, a canal, and farm equipment in both giant and miniature versions. With only 2 hours and between rain showers, 9 of us had a field day!

From October 21 to November 17, I traveled with friends, camping through southern Utah, northern Arizona, and even two nights near Las Vegas, Nevada.