Birthday Fun

Fall was right around the corner in the Paradise Valley just south of Livingston, Montana.  We spent the weekend there to celebrate my birthday, staying at the Yellowstone Valley Lodge and hiking and climbing in Mill Creek Canyon.  I just wish we'd had two nights instead of one. 
Mill Creek Canyon had a pretty catastrophic wildfire recently, so we hiked through a ghost forest of sub-alpine and Douglas fir. All the new ground exposed to the sun meant the forest floor was instead carpeted with fireweed and thimble berry turning bright red, orange and yellow.

The view from our cabin: Yellowstone River and the Absaroka Range

And of course we celebrated again in Richmond with my family.  Do I look a bit like my grandmother and namesake? I think so.