Iron Mountain 10 Oct 2014

Wanting something easy and familiar, I headed to Iron Mountain on a sunny fall day, hoping to enjoy some nice color.  The woods and meadows were very dry and the colors were not as pronounced as previous years, but it was still a very pretty day.  When I got up to the summit of Iron Mountain I could see that there was another fire to the southeast but the wind was blowing the smoke away from me.  On the way back, I stopped at the Hackleman Old Growth forest trail to do the little 1.2 mile loop.  Colors were more vibrant there because a little creek ran through the area, keeping everything nice and damp.
Total hike mileage for today - 7.8 with about 1800 ft gain.

Iron Mtn and spent coneflowers

the demise of vanilla leaf

huckleberry near the summit

lunch spot

beautiful meadow

old growth

colorful bunchberry