Fences - Another study in weathered wood

In my post on high country weathering, I didn't think things completely through. I think the dry climate has a lot more to do with the colors than the altitude. I walk the dogs in the morning and I'm sort of on automatic pilot most mornings. Late last week while I was still experimenting with some different colors and I realized that I didn't need pictures off the internet to work out the colors. There are plenty of fences in my neighborhood that have exactly this kind of weathering. 

These are fences in the neighborhood that I can see easily, none of them have been replaced while I have lived here so they are all at least 10 years old. Here is a sample:

1. This fence faces east so it gets the morning sun.

2. This one and the next two face south and, I suspect anyway, is really old, likely 20+ years. If you look at the fence post you can see two very different levels of weathering. The section to the right has more cover from a tree that is further to the right while the section to the left has no cover at all.

3. Same fence as #2, just a bit further to the left.

4. And again, but this section is almost completely screened off by brush in front of it and doesn't have nearly the amount of grey in it as the exposed section to the right of this.

5. This section of fence faces to the west. Its not nearly as weathered as I expected because of the western light it gets, however, there is a house directly across from this and provides quite a bit of shadow when the sun is in the west.

6. This little bit of fence faces north and is about a medium grey with just a hint of orange in one or two spots. This is another fence with no cover. I think its grey because it gets a lot of moisture, especially during the winter when the winds tend to drive from north to south. So moisture is really the culprit for wood fading to grey, which makes sense when you look at mine buildings, horizontal surfaces are almost exclusively grey, likely because snow accumulates there during the winter so the wood is very wet.

7. This is the same fence as the photo #1, but it shows quite a bit of difference in colors, especially the nearly solid black on the far right, which is directly adjacent to a much lighter section.

8. This is another section of fence that faces south with no cover. Note that it is, in general, darker than the fence (Photo 1 and 7) next to it. What is interesting is the grey wood at the top, from snow accumulation, rain and, likely, sprinklers. You can also see the greying at the bottom, the water is leaching out the chemicals that are causing the wood to weather to these colors.