A Glimpse of Fall

Nov 13, 2019

By Christian Begeman

The fall of 2019 was moody and somewhat mysterious. It arrived late and left early. The abundant rains of this year’s warmer months kept the landscape green long into October. When the leaves finally decided to give in to the season’s turning, the winds that ripped them from their branches weren’t far behind. An old photography adage says that bad weather makes for good photographs, so even though autumn barely touched down this time around, there were still good opportunities for photos.

Around the first of October, I was in the western portion of our great state. In Custer State Park, prairie coneflowers were still in bloom and there was plenty of lush, green grass. But up in the high country, the wet weather hovered between cold rain and freezing mist. This made for extraordinary macro visions of colored leaves holding hands with newly forming ice droplets.

A few days later, I ventured into the rugged country of Harding County only to see that the Slim Buttes had a cloak of snow at the base of its annual autumn splendor. A little further south at Castle Butte, I caught an interesting vision of hay bales smoking in the early morning sun. At least that’s what it looked like. What was really happening was that the warm sun was striking the snow directly, and instead of melting, the water in the snow went right into the gas stage, vaporizing into the morning air.

The following week, the early snow seemed to follow me back across the state. The foliage had begun to blush by then, and with the thick snowflakes the scene at the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls soon resembled an impressionistic masterpiece. 

The Big Sioux River was in flood stage for most of this year. Oddly enough, because of this I found my greatest visions of fall beauty all year. At the Big Sioux Recreation Area near Brandon, the forested flats near the riverbanks have walking paths and a disc golf course. Unfortunately, the majority of this area was under water all year. By the time fall colors peaked along the riverside, the waters had receded into the banks but left behind mud flats and still pools of water. This phenomenon presented a unique way to enjoy the fall beauty, as mirror-like pools essentially doubled the fall color. It was quite an enchanting scene, even though I nearly ruined a pair of hiking shoes with mud and water on three different trips to try to capture this new-found beauty. Although I could see the loveliness of the season through the mess, there is still quite a mess to clean up before that area of the park returns to normal. It reminded me of all the other resulting troubles our state has endured in 2019.

So, like the season itself, the scenes I captured are a bit bittersweet. Yes, they are beautiful, but the beauty came at a cost. Likewise, autumn in its fleeting beauty means the hardships of winter on the high plains is nigh. It is a cost we must pay every year. Even so, I can’t help but love fall in this part of the world. I just hope it sticks around a bit longer next year.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he's not working at Midco he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.