Leaf Peeping Season Chaos

September and October are leaf peeping season in Colorado, and I had a plan for optimizing my time in an area we hadn't previously explored during the fall color show. Ha! The season had other ideas! Like starting more than a week early in some places -- and having fun with

Mt Ouray in Technicolor

an early color show in the high country, while leaving the valleys and lower elevations in summery green.

That meant my carefully laid plans went out the door, and instead of having four or five days in a campsite where we could park our teardrop and explore in all directions, we ended up

Campsite near Nathrop, Colorado

squeezing in a day and a half in one location, and parts of three days in another area of the state over two consecutive weekends. As a result, I'm tired!!! And I haven't had time to review most of my photos yet. And I have more to load to the big computer. And my nearly 20-year-old 'go-to' lens is giving me fits. And.... well, I'll probably come up with something else to grumble about.

But before all this leaf peeping chaos, we headed to Montana for several days in mid-September to catch up with all my siblings and their families, and -- a surprise for us -- our longtime friends who now live in Missouri. It was so great to see them all, but way too short.

Beginning of the color show on Mt. Princeton

The fall colors were just starting when we were in Montana, so I didn’t capture any great photos. After we got home, my husband, who’s amazing at planning, looked up where we could likely find some good fall colors the following weekend. As a result, we ended up in Nathrop and the Salida area for just one night. And got a few really nice images (such as the one of Mt. Ouray, above) as well as a pretty drive over a mountain pass we hadn't traversed since the pandemic.

Our third trip in three weeks took us to tiny Cimarron and a campground that's new to us. We had such beautiful overnight temperatures the two nights we stayed there that it was hard to leave. Our long driving day to chase the color was marred by difficult lighting due to heavy overcast at times and strong contrasts from bright sun and cloud shadows at other times. However, in spite of that, I was happy with quite a few images I captured. And I was pleased that we saw so many red and orange aspens this year. I'll post some samples, and try to be less wordy than usual. Enjoy!

Pretty avenue and photobomb cloud

Closeup giving contrasts

Sometimes serendipity strikes -- like the little cloud that worked its way into the composition at the left. It just showed up. Then, the single leaf among the groundcover plants that look like shamrocks (I'm not sure what they are) was another serendipitous find because there weren't many leaves on the ground yet. A little later in the season, they'll be thick underfoot.

Gambel oaks in flame

We both were amazed by the deep red of this stand of Gambel oaks on a hillside not far from Ridgway. And the aspen trunks below were just gorgeous against the riot of leaves around them.

Seven Sisters

Somehow, I ended up with far more vertical compositions than usual, and they're a bit more challenging to work into a post.

Fire on the mountainside

This distant stand of aspens on a mountainside (left) looks so much like flames, it's a little scary.

Ridge south of Mt. Ouray all decked out

I was enthralled with this ridge next to Mt. Ouray (right), but it's easy to see that a couple days later, it would have been far more colorful.

Chimney Rock above still-green aspens

Interestingly, these aspens below Chimney Rock were barely turning, but we found plenty of color

Ramparts and spires of South Cimarron Ridge

just a couple miles away and several hundred feet lower. (Leave it to the crazy logic of Colorado place-naming conventions to designate a nearly 12,000-foot spire Rock rather than Peak. This is, after all, a state with two Cottonwood Passes and at least three Sheep Mountains.)

I'll have to stop with these views of the Cimarron Range, where some of the aspens had turned already; and where they hadn't, the narrow-leaf cottonwoods and willows were putting on quite a show. I have more photos from these two weekends jaunts, but this is most likely far more samples than you'd expected.

Cimarron Range with narrow-leaf cottonwoods and willows

We didn't see much wildlife on either trip; mostly hawks, pronghorns, and a coyote far out in a field. On the way home, however, we saw a bunch of cars pulled over on both sides of the highway and people acting dangerously. It turned out they were trying to get photos of a moose cow and calf not far off the road. We decided not to join the scrum because the light was failing and there was too much traffic all around to safely pull over.

Enough of this chaos! As always, please let me know in the Comments what you think, and don't be afraid to offer critiques of the work. I'm trying to post some new imagery on my website, so be sure to check it out at www.denisedethlefsen.com. My photo art for your home, office or commercial space is available at the Shop Art page.