This time, I’ll write a bit about a place I like to visit, and one that I found to be great for seeing the seasons change. But as with any mixed forest, it’s autumn when it truly shines. This post will be about the southern part of ‘Rychlebské hory’ mountain range on CZ-PL border, near the Jeseník and Horní Lipová spa towns.

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So, while it was not the first time I visited the area, one of the most memorable was in autumn 2013. As usual, being part of a full group, we started at same place, but I took a slight detour that paid off. And in the end, led me to buy my current pocket camera as I saw that old phone is insufficient. Anyway, here comes my best phone photo ever.

Notice the tree in the middle for comparing with the next photo.

If there’s anything truly charming, it’s the autumn mist, combined with the colorful forest. Add to it the higher, spruce-covered mountains across the valley, one gets quite a palette of color to which this phone photo can’t do enough justice. I tried to redo it two years later, when I went to the same place, taking the same trail, had luck to be almost the same type of weather, and reached the same spot at almost the same time. Almost, because the 2013 hike was during summer time (12th, transition 27th) and the 2015 was after summer time ended THE VERY DAY BEFORE, so one hour later, and the mist was gone. It’s one more reason for me to hate this nonsense…

Same place, two years later. The tree in the middle was what assured me it really was the same place.

That day prepared one more twist for me, as that day (31.10.2015), a falling meteor was sighted above Poland. When that happened, I was pacing around the waiting room of a train station, and somehow was lucky enough to look out of the window at that exact moment. I was the only one of the five of us that saw it, due to that luck…

But even that 2013 hike was not without interesting surprises. Something that many other nations might not understand, Slavic nations, especially in central Europe, are somehow into gathering edible mushrooms. And then, I was lucky to see this…

My 2013 self and the mushroom I found. Photo taken by my father.

Zoom. Turning to another day, the gentle terrain can create really nice sceneries when the autumn gives it the best. Rolling fields with yellow trees and faint outlines of higher mountains in the background, only teasing in the damp and foggy autumn weather. Really nice time for a walk.

This is the from the same days as the three photos I posted last time, of which I feel the need to repost one, as it shows why I like that place in autumn.

Now, Two hikes separated by a bit over than one year. Second part of the 2015 revisit, and my 12/2016 solo hike. Sunlight in autumn and winter on the same place, and how different it looks…

Fields of ‘Větrov’ peak, 31.10.2015

Same place (again, notice the trees), 22.12.2016

I hope that for completeness, I’ll visit the place in spring, though not sure if I’ll push it into my plan for the next year. The lower parts could be more attractive, as birches with young leaves look really magnificent (about that some other day). By the way, I named that photo above ‘Veil of Winter’ for myself, after Sirenia’s 2016 song.

I’ll wrap up this post with more photos from the late December day, because I think there’s a beauty in winter scenery, one that not everyone wants to see. Or is not willing to seek, because it’s cold. That time it was good, as it was around -5°C.

Trees can be really magnificent in winter as well…

And the last picture for today…

While it was really nice and cool above the clouds, which were stuck with their tops in some 900 meters above sea level, it was a bit gloomy below that line. I was glad I walked that path alone and knew to follow the border of field and forest, otherwise I might as well get lost.