STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The foliage on the top of Bald Mountain is turning red, meaning fall is not far away, even though College Boulevard is currently covered in grasses armpit high, swaths of purple lupine, vibrant red Indian paintbrush, yellow hawksbeard and yellow-orangish Oregon sunshine.

Only 109 days remain until the opening of Sun Valley’s ski season, provided Mr. Frost can see fit to endow Sun Valley with colder temperatures than he did last year.

And reportedly the ongoing work to replace the Christmas and Lookout Express chairlifts is on schedule. In fact, we may see helicopters flying in towers by the end of this week or the first of next.

This CAT found a great perch to park for the weekend.

Lower Bald Mountain Trail will be closed beginning today—Monday, Aug. 10—through September to allow crews to refurbish the trail where it sloughed off towards the river and to work on the trail leading off from the Bald Mountain Trail to Warm Springs Preserve.

That means no trips to the lookout until October.

The Roundhouse Gondola will continue to ferry people to the Roundhouse for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. From there, bikers can access some of the flow trails on the mountain, and hikers will be able to hike to the top where it’s as much as 15 degrees cooler than the valley floor.

The wheels that will carry the weight of the cable as chairs glide over Bald Mountain are waiting to be hoisted into place.

Crews work at the bottom of the new high-speed quad Christmas lift.

Some behemoth trucks are doing the heavy lifting on Bald Mountain.