Sunday I met up with my friend to bicycle the High Trestle Bridge Trail.  Since I have already written about the trestle trail  in a previous blog, I am not going to cover the bridge itself as much, nor all the details, so you should read that blog for more information. ( Read here)  I did want to share my fall photos of the trail, though, that my friend and I enjoyed oh so much on Sunday afternoon when the leaves were at their peak!

We met in Slater to ride the 10 miles to the bridge since the last time I started in Madrid, IA, and that was only 3 or so miles to the bridge.  This trail is always busy, although by starting in Slater we did have some time to bike side by side before the crowds increased enough that we had to go single file.

We met in the parking lot of Earl Grimm Park in Slater, Iowa.  The fall colors were just beautiful as you can see below and the people so friendly.  Everywhere we stopped we had people offer to take pictures of us!  I ended up not using any of them, though, for the blog since we were mostly being silly.

As you can see in the picture below, even the snake grass turned colors which I never knew happened.  Hopefully it was for fall and not because we are experiencing a drought where we are five inches short of rain this summer so far.  I am proud of myself, though, that I even know the names of these plants since I learned them long ago when my family would go for walks.  My dad was a botany/biology teacher, and these days I find myself wishing he was along to tell me the names of everything.  I actually wonder to myself all the time, “I wonder what that is called”.  At the time as a kid, of course, I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have but I did retain some of it.

While I always have loved the top brushy part of the Pampas Grass, I never knew that the leaves turned such a variegated fall color.  Isn’t that interesting?  Again, hope it is not because it is too dry out.

And then there is the bridge itself.  I wonder how many times it’s been photographed!?!  I thought the railing in the below picture fit right in with the fall colors.

At the end of the bridge there is a nice observation area where we took a rest before heading back.

The next two photos are from the observation point looking down.

You can see that many of the leaves are already gone because of the drought conditions.  We don’t even have any rain forecasted for the near future!  In the below picture you can see the shadow of me taking the picture.

On our way back we, of course, had to stop at the Flat Tire Saloon in Madrid for a tasty beverage.  Here is a picture of the inside of the Flat Tire Saloon.

This time we sat at the bar so my friend took a great photo of the unique bar and her sangria.  As you can see, the bar is cement with pieces of glass broken up in it.

The break came at the perfect time and made the last miles back to the car much more enjoyable!