Above the Tree Line

In September, Kevin and I took a drive with the dogs up into the mountains, past the Randsfjorden valley, through Bygdin and Beitostolen, up to Vagamo, then back down through Lillehammer and home to Gjovik. I've driven through mountainous terrain before (we used to live close to the Adirondacks) but I've never been above the tree line before. It was the most alien landscape I've ever seen--the only foliage was some sort of red flowering shrub, and green moss growing on all the rocks. There are a lot of vacation cabins up in this area--the skiing is supposed to be fantastic. We took this drive on September 24th, and the roads were already marked with 8 feet poles--I guess so the snow plows and other vehicles don't veer off the roads. In Gjovik, over the last several weeks, some of the roads have been marked with poles too, but luckily they are only about 5 feet tall. I can't believe how much my perspective has changed since moving here--I used to complain about more than 5 inches of snow, now I'm grateful that we will probably only accumulate 5 feet of snow this winter. 8 feet of snow would be terrible, but 5 feet--no problem! I have winter tires and warm boots, so bring it on!