Fuzzy snow and a full moon

The full moon hike last night was cold, but beautiful. New snow really made the colors of everything stand out. The orange needles and burned bark, the golden dried grasses, a bright green juniper in the dog town I had never noticed, and a single stem of annual wild buckwheat with tiny dried rust-colored flowers. The colors were all there before, of course, but with a new white background they are pretty dramatic. The prairie dog town was covered in snow but, unlike every other time, there were no prairie dog tracks. At all. The quick drop in temperatures must have driven them underground all day, starting to eat into their stored supplies for the first time.

The thin layer of snow on un-frozen ground was in some places really fuzzy-looking, like a fine white shag carpet. Not sure why that happens, so if anyone knows they should comment here. There's a photo, but I'm not sure it gets the texture across.

And, of course, the moon was out and brilliant. I tried to get a photo framed by the burned trees but couldn't quite get the focus. Against the rims, though, it was a great view. Here's the un-edited version.