We made it through the fire and back onto the pavement,
marking the midway point. We relaxed and chatted about the not so great sun-shot and the scary
fire. Even our driver relaxed and agreed that, now that we were safe, the trip
had been quite an experience. Not what we'd planned, but definitely exciting.
But it was 1 AM and as our adrenalin high gave out, we quieted down. The dogs
slept. My daughter dozed.
My eyes had almost closed too when I saw a new show start. It woke me right up. The sun came out from behind the mountains
and painted the sky with brilliant shades of red and pink and purple. Our driver
stopped, repeatedly, and patiently waited for me to walk along the road to get
just the right shot.
This unexpected gift, a sunrise made glorious by
the smoke from the same fires that had shrouded the horizon and prevented our
midnight sun shots, reminded us that, to paraphrase an old saying, "When
one photo op disappears, an even better one will appear!"
Bluebells
These tiny blue flowerets are just one of the many arctic flowers
we saw on Eagle Summit. Arctic flora is often identical to flowers that grow in
lower climes, except that they are always much smaller.
