The Best Place in Idaho in Autumn is an Image of Life

Unless it all doesn’t burn by October, we should have some great autumn colors in some parts of Idaho.  I grew up in a maple forest, and while you get a tighter mix in the colors, an open meadow in Idaho with colors changing on the horizon is a sight to behold.

My favorite location is north of Ketchum.  And over the mountain and into Stanley.  I’m not sure what will be left near the latter, but I have a lot of photographs to jog some great memories.

In the fields north of Ketchum, I’m reminded of the stories I’ve heard about Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper going birding.  They were two extraordinary men who lived to be ordinary in the backcountry.

In early October, the days are suddenly shorter, but when it’s clear, the sun is warm at 70 degrees.  The tourists are fewer, and you can stop for a coffee and get the feel of a community.  The air is often still, as opposed to spring in Idaho.  And the leaves are turning bright yellow against the golden fields, green mountains, and blue skies.

It’s fleeting, but it’s a calming experience and you savor it because soon it will be gray, and the snow will not only fall but often blow sideways.

I can imagine Hemingway and Cooper walking through a field, and listening for a rustle in the grass.  Cooper was a godly man, and perhaps he imagined the voice of the Creator.

Autumn is the last gasp of possibility before we’re enveloped in the darkness and the cold.  It's the season we reckon with what's ahead, for all of us, before eternity.

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