Yellow Gold

This past Saturday, Daughter #1 and I planned to take a day trip to see the color. In Colorado, “seeing the color” means heading to the hills to see the aspen, hoping that you’ve chosen the right day. An early snowstorm … strong wind …rain can put the aspen color on the ground.

Armed with submarine sandwiches, we headed west up Highway 285 toward South Park. We thought there would be color on Kenosha Pass, but the “real color” would be further into the mountains.

At the summit of Kenosha Pass, there must have been more than one hundred vehicles parked beside the highway with their occupants moving up and down beside the pavement looking for the BEST picture. Their images may not be what they expect because most of the color was three or four football fields away from where they were standing to take the pictures. It would take a really good telephoto lens capture the color from the road.

I remember years ago, when I was taking photographs to sell, my very best image of fall color was taken on Kenosha Pass. I walked into a stand of aspen trees and shot the picture straight into the sun. The sun backlit the leaves, creating a beautiful image.

Saturday, we didn’t stop at the top of Kenosha with all of the other yellow gold seekers; once Kenosha has been summited, it descends immediately into South Park on a road where you can see completely across the valley. Daughter #1 said that when she and her sisters were young, and they heard that we were going to South Park, they thought it would be like a city park with swings and see-saws and such. And, they were surprised when there were none; just a huge, huge expanse of land, ranches, and cattle.

The largest town in South Park, Fairplay, is where we turned west onto the road to Breckenridge – passing through the smaller town of Alma and directly into the heart of the Mosquito Range of mountains. We had seen some color before getting to the Mosquito Range; but there, the aspen color exploded on the sides of the mountains. At Breckenridge, we turned around to head back home, forgoing returning by Highway 70.

Traveling one way on a road, you get your first view of the color. If you travel home on the same road, the picture changes completely. And, the images may be even more spectacular. Alma gave me the opportunity to photograph a wonderful 1800’s county courthouse and it’s jail.

While there, we drove by and I photographed a very charming house that is painted blue – not the white with black trim that seems to have invaded the entire valley. In front of the tiny blue house stood a rock snow person – a snowman, I think, because Mrs. Thompson said that in the summertime, HE wears a straw hat. So, snowman, he is.

Mr. Thompson appeared to be very much a mountain man with a long flowing white beard (almost down to his belt), white mustache, and a gorgeous piece of silver jewelry around his neck – hung over a significantly local tee-shirt. Yep. A mountain man in a mountain town! Our conversation was both informative and enjoyable.

The day was enjoyed by both of us. It is fun, sometimes, to sit in the rider’s seat and be able to concentrate on the scenery and not the road, and take pictures without stopping the car.

Be safe and well.
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are appreciated.