Summer ended with a bang here in Vernal, and across the rest of Utah as well.  The official first day of fall coincided with a massive cold front that brought torrential downpours, high winds, and even a few tornadoes across the entire state.  It started snowing again in the Uintas.  That trend will probably continue until the peaks are buried deep under 4 feet of snow.  That was something I learned firsthand in May about 2 weeks after I got here, when I tried to climb Marsh Peak and ended up fighting through waist deep snow for hours with nothing to show for it.

We are still in limbo over most of our collections.  We have our eyes on two different eriogonum species that will probably be collected soon, but we are worried that most of our remaining collections won’t be ready until after we leave.  The Sarcobatus vermiculatus seems to be coming along well and will probably be caught, but Most of the artemisia species are still barely flowering.  The only way we could get those is if me or Hannah extends into November.  That’s a possibility but not likely.  I’m waiting to hear back for a job that starts in November and Hannah has her own plans.  I guess we will have to count on next years interns to get those collections.