This is not junk mail, this is pictures of yellow leaves.

I'm a sucker for a river valley, and the White River's Skookum Flats had been calling my name for a while. Apparently 'skookum' means strong or powerful in Chinook Jargon, alluding to the mighty river flowing off of Tahoma. Clearly not at full might during my visit, but without a doubt very very skookum at the time of this writing.

I've been holding onto these photos for weeks (months?) waiting for the right time to share (or procrastinating the work of putting this together). And lucky you, its today. Shockingly, its not the big trees getting me going this time, but rather the shrubby little vine maples in their shadows. At the height of autumn, they light up the understory with explosions of yellow leafage. Although, I admit there were some invigoratingly large doug-firs as well...