This was the scene at the campground I stayed at this summer on my first day south from Bozeman to Las Vegas. This is a campground south of Huntsville, Utah, in the Wasatch range west of Ogden (map).

It's not snow you see on the ground, despite being white stuff that accumulated in a layer several inches thick, and blew into drifts like snow would.



These are the seeds of the cottonwood tree (Populus fremontii), which like dandelions, have a bunch of fluff emerging from them to catch the wind. This allows the species to spread its range by letting the wind carry its seeds to new locations. While cottonwoods are ubiquitous in wet areas of the west, I've never seen this kind of accumulation of cottonwood fluff before.



It was like warm snow -- quite magical to see.

PS - Prius note: The fuel mileage out west this summer wasn't as good as the regular commute back home in DC, but it was still pretty good. The total roadtrip (~10,000 miles) ended up averaging 52.6 miles per gallon of gasoline. Can't complain about that.

Labels: plants, prius, travel, utah