Terrible Summer of 2020 Part 3

Part 3

A Beautiful Fall
Middle of September and time for my traditional flight to observe the beauty of the fall colors.
My usual route of flight would be West to the Yukon and then up the Yukon to the pipeline bridge, thence out to the Yukon Flats then South through the Whites. This day, there were storms to the West starting with Quail Creek Mountains and extending West and North to the Ray Mountains and the Kanuti Flats. So once again adventure beckoned North through the Whites with the wonders of the mosaic of color from the clone clusters of quaking aspens to the birch and, finally on islands in the Yukon, dwarf birch and willow.

Along the way, I was stunned to see that my favorite gravel bars, both on the Yukon and on the Hodzana, which should have been visible now that the water levels were receding, were just gone! The incredibly high water and sustained flow throughout the summer had washed all that gravel to other places, to be discovered next year.