Just a Short Beautiful Hike

I've been so busy taking care of a gigantic tree that had to be cut down, that I haven't had time for other exercise.  Cutting, splitting, stacking then dragging branches. 
But today I had to get away from the house.  It is extremely windy with dust blowing all over the valley. But I went up to Hatcher Pass in search of any indication of fall colors.  Sadly due to this summer's drought and hot temperatures, most of the leaves have gone directly from green to brown and fallen off.  There are occasional spots of yellow, but they are few and far between.
I hiked the trail at the top of Hatcher Pass behind Summit Lake.  It was fairly calm on the Willow side, but once I reached the ridge, the wind from the Palmer side nearly blew me over!  It rained a little but not enough to get me wet.  I turned around at the highest point where it becomes a rock scramble.  I have been having some pain in my left ankle so didn't want to chance having problems up there, especially if it started raining hard.

It was just gorgeous up there as always. There are no trees that high but the tundra brush was a lovely golden yellow.