A hint of fall

 

I walked to the City Park early this morning and noticed the confluence of the Methow and Twisp Rivers was unusually muddy. There were flood warnings yesterday for the north part of the county because of  "isolated slow moving thunderstorms." Someone at the park said it rained very hard in Winthrop yesterday, but none at all in Twisp just a few miles down the road. But we had a short passing shower this morning that freshened up the air.

The afternoons are still hot, but I needed a jacket this morning. There's that feeling in the air that summer has reached it's peak with the occasional yellow Cottonwood leaf drifting down. Soon it will be time to winterize the house again. Who wants to think about that now?

Beaver Creek Cemetery is about 2 miles south of Twisp. It's situated in a lovely spot over looking the Valley. Kudos to the local cemetery board for keeping it so well maintained. Looks like plenty of room at the inn, if you're interested ;-)

Humans have lived in the Methow Valley for about 10,000 years, but few regions of Washington are as isolated, and the area has its share of devastating fires, floods and freezes. Nevertheless, the first fur trappers and miners arrived in the late 1800's and a road up the Valley was built in 1904, later destroyed by the epic 1948 flood. The native population (not decimated by disease) was moved to reservations on worthless land to the east. 

Anyway, to make a long story short, this area was never densely populated like some of the mining boom towns in the west that had railway service, etc. But in 1972, the North Cascades Highway opened and struggling Winthrop reinvented itself as a old western themed town. Vacation getaways and year-round homes began to spring up, leading to the vibrant community we have today.

Back to Seattle tomorrow.