sunday drive OR WHY we live in idaho

A few days ago, Jessica wrote on her blog that one of her favorite things to do was to 'go on a drive' . . .

since gas prices went up beyond reasonable we cut back on our drives, big time . . . this picture taken through the windshield going 55 mph . . .haha, Bob never drives that slow - let's say 80+ . . .

with winter breathing down our necks and fall colors at their most intense, we decided to head out today and 'take a drive' . . .

we weren't disappointed! Above, Palisades dam was beautiful - but the weather was perfect as well. Notice the water level is quite low - but it is the end of summer so actually, not that bad considering all the irrigation that's gone on. The water should be at the base of the trees . . .

Swan Valley at it's glorious best . . .

peeking through the bushes for a look at the river . . .

when I was taking the following pictures, I kept telling Bob, "This looks like someone has oil painted these shots - not photographs!" . . .

I had to shoot one shot of the mountains behind just to show these shots were real and not fabricated . . .

then I shot right in the middle of the intense colored follage - it reminds me of an oil painting . . .

I think these would be nice screen savers! . . .

right before we reached Swan Valley . . .

this shot caught my eye on the way to Palisades Dam but didn't catch it until our return home - it had so many elements of design, I just couldn't resist it . . .

this tree is at the south fork of the Snake River. It towers above the shot directly below . . .

South fork of the Snake River . . . looking east . . .

looking west . . .

some local follage . . . sweet and delicate . . .

if you look really close, you can see spider webs wrapped around some of the branches . . .

at waters-edge . . .

a study in 'contrasts' . . .

Well, now that gas prices have come down some, we'll be taking 'drives' more often. One of my favorite things to do too and with ALL this in our 'backyard' . . . why stay home?!