Boy, I'm getting slow at these as it is mid-October now that I try to write the account. Damn DVD! Anyway, this was the morning the fog sea'd out the most at Murray Hill, without overtaking the hill in the process. That is always the trick, get good thick, low fog, but not too thick that it engulfs the hilltop. This morning started a pattern however. You'd get it nice and thick down there, but it would then get blown over onto this hill and then sit there, leaving you no view other than being in fog. This was the view northwest before the sun rose. While it was still dark you really couldn't even make out any lights/towns down there at all. This trail goes down over by that sharp hillside. Down below, an amazing blanket of clouds on the ground...fog. I don't fly, so, well, this is the only way I get above the clouds lol.

This is the view to the south from the highest point. I'm still not certain why I find it so cool to see fog from above, but it is to me. I guess I can fly this way with my feet on the ground. For reference this hill is only about 300 feet higher than the flat farmland below. The fog like this happens when the ground is still moist from rain, or the atmosphere is just left really moist, and you get a clear cool night with little to no wind. If you lack moisture and if you have any wind at all, either of those, it is hard to get any ground fog. It really takes the stars to align to get it like it is here right now. Most times when you are lucky enough to get it, you can drive in it and see stars clear as can be, since it is only 30-50 feet deep max or so. That is what you normally get if you are lucky enough to get the stuff to form at all. It's either you get fog like that, or you get thick general fog that will extend up way higher than the hill. Either form can be horribly dense as you try to see horizontally in it. That is what is so crazy on the low thinner stuff, when you can't see but maybe 2 highway lines/dashes ahead of you, but if you look up the stars are as bright as can be. So anyway, to get it to be tall enough to go half way up the hill or more, without being too tall...well is rare. On the drive up I could rarely see any stars above me, it was at least that tall. I did not figure I could drive up Murray Hill and ever get out of it, but I went anyway.

This is looking at the road that comes up the hill. About half way up I just popped right out of the fog. It's not very far in from leaving the farmland. Couple blocks perhaps. You go from really really bad visibility to perfect visibility.

I have gone up here for low fog shots a stupid amount of times now(35 mile drive from home). I've skipped out after looking at obs and seeing it was just not happening...a lot more times. So the times I go, it's already a pretty good setup for it to happen in. I have never once seen it do this scene above. I'm all the way up top. Must be a 1/4 mile walk or more but a really steep one from the parking lot you can drive up to. The parking lot was now swamped. What is happening is a light east wind kicked in. The area to the west goes down into the flats along the Missouri River. To the east a slew of hills on and on. All the stuff in the valley of the hills was being blown west now, flowing through here and on down into the already full of fog flats. Just amazing to see it flowing and swamping out the tops of hills, especially those to the north. It was sort of smooth looking on the top of it too, which made it feel as if you could just walk down to the edge and "walk on it".   Looking to the east as the stuff blows west at me and on down behind me.

Well like anything weather-wise, if it is amazing, it's probably not going to stay that way for long. Soon as the sun rose the wind dropped off to nothing. Then instead of the fog being shaved off and blown through the valley, it's left to sit wherever it blew to and rise up a bit. Shortly after this shot above I was left to sit in tall fog that extended well above my head. I then had the same view as if I was down below in the stuff...a view of nothing but dense fog all around, no longer looking down on it. That annoyed the crap out of me because it had been getting so amazing.

I had a short-lived gap of lesser fog sitting on me, so that the sun shown through, creating a nice glory down below around my shadow.

Glory and edge of fog bow on left.

Glory and fog bow. I was soon engulfed back in the fog and never had any good view again that day...all because the wind stopped blowing and left it up on the hill. Most times wind is bad, as it will mix out the fog so quickly. This time though there was more than enough moisture and well, wind would have been nice.

August 30th on this one above. Not much fog around.

August 31st on the one above. I'm actually at the Vermilion "overlook" on this one. What a complete and utter lie, calling that thing an overlook is a bit much. More like a telephoto through widespread trees. That place could be amazing if they simply chopped down a very few trees. So stupid, I don't get at all why it is like it is there. Certainly a waste of gas that morning. Ponca State Park's overlook was far better, but I was there a bit too late. In the above the Missouri river is directly below here(not in shot), just fields of fog out there further. There was zero option to include the river with the shot thanks to all the trees.

September 14th now, Herman cemetery. Not a lot of fog, hence I tried somewhere much closer to town. Great sunrise however.

September 16th in the above, Herman cemetery again. Fog started to form but a breeze kicked in and mixed out most of it. Lovely inversion layer mirage on the sun though.

September 17th now. Cemetery again. Cemetery is actually nice because it is not a road, so no one to drive by or pull up and ask what you are doing. But yeah, getting out of the car to do night shots there can be interesting. Crescent moon with Earthshine and Venus above, as well as a cool area of tall fog near the river.

Just about don't notice the crescent moon in this one.

September 19th now, that is the power plant south of town. I was out other days and have a lot of other shots, but well enough is enough with fog for a while! (I did this and the 3 accounts after it at the same time, and wrote this one last)