Dakota and I went for a walk in the woods. The girls were out shopping & then Marina spent the night Saturday at Megan Ward's out in Key Peninsula. So Dakota and I had the day to ourselves. We had a picnic lunch and then went for a nice walk in the woods up at Federation Forest. It was a beautiful crisp but sunny autumn day. We didn't see much wildlife but enjoyed the giant trees and fall colors.
Some of the old growth Douglas Firs are very large!
This was a pretty cool tree. Apparently it blew over in the wind. When it fell it got caught, wedged between two other trees. This caused the root ball to come completely free of the ground where it remains suspended in the air. 
Another gigantic Douglas Fir tree. Dakota was most interested in the "nurse logs" and "nurse stumps" that were hosting Western Hemlock saplings of various sizes.
Eventually the trail took us to the White River and followed its shoreline.
We took a side trail down to the river and threw rocks and sticks in for a while.
When our hike was finished we drove on up to Crystal Mountain. At the tops of the hills we could see where it had recently snowed but there was no snow down at the ski area where we were. Driving back down the mountain we noticed, looking out over one of the vast valleys, a single yellow tree nestled among a forest of deep green. It was really stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, taking the picture into the sun and with a soft fog coming into the valley the picture is not very clear.
Dakota had a good day in the mountains.
And so did daddy! 
what a good day.
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