Aspens are such wonderful visual and photographic subjects. Their golden leaves in fall seem almost to be lit from within so brilliant is their color. And aspen trunks often are pictures of arboreal perfection rising straight toward the sky one after the other within huge stands covering vast areas (many acres or even square miles of aspen forest may actually be a single organism). Here though, as is often the case, it is the imperfections in these aspens--likely fostered by enduring avalanches or the peculiarities of how the snowpack presses on the trees in this small area--that elevates and distinguishes their beauty.

This shot is from an awesome, pandemic-cautious, trip a few weeks ago through the autumn splendors of central Colorado with Josh Krasner and Sky Matthews, and we were especially fortunate to be able to enjoy some of the trip with Josh's family. Special thanks to Josh and his family for everything they did to make the trip happen and for sharing some of this grand adventure with us!

Our circuitous route on this trip took us to Telluride near peak aspen color, and being photographers, these famed curved aspens found their way onto our list of things to explore. It is rare in our modern world for anything to be kept secret, but some quick searches for the location of these trees revealed only some clues but nothing specific, which added considerably to the fun in finding them among the endless stunning scenes offered by Colorado's mountains on a crisp fall morning. The typical phrase used to describe their location is something like "in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado" and I will leave it at that here too so others can share in the interest of the search as well as the enjoyment of seeing them.

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Tags:   San Juan Mountains Colorado Telluride Curved Aspens Autumn Fall Color Leaves Nikon Landscape Beautiful Aspen Sinuous Avalanche Ophir Mountain West photobenedict Dawn Morning Sunrise Sunstar Forest Trees

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Hoping for another encounter with Colorado peak fall color, Josh arranged for us to head back to Telluride for a few days this past September. And we heard the aspens did turn that beautiful gold, as aspens are wont to do: They just did so a few days after we had to head home.

No matter. We had a great time, and on one outing we found these famed "dancing" aspens to be no less beautiful in the moody light well before sunrise, their writhing, rising forms still adorned much more in emerald than gold.

It's been a trying time in recent months. While chugging along hoping the pandemic would soon end, a rush of other reminders of life's fragility and caprice suddenly intruded into my life and those of several family and friends. Despite these trials, I am left more thankful than ever for all that is good in life, for the times together with loved ones and enjoyable people, and for times like these among the wonders of nature great and small.

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Emanating from behind low evening clouds, light rays crown the skies above the yawning chasm's dark recesses at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado.

This grand place may not be as often noted as many other, more famous National Parks, but I consider it a must-see whenever nearby in the warm season. Black Canyon gets its name because light struggles to find its way into the narrow abyss, making the grayed igneous rock walls appear even darker, except where streaks of much lighter, crystal-laden pegmatite ripple across the sheer cliffs. The wall opposite is known as the Painted Wall because of those very pegmatite veins.

Looking over the edge, it's hard to perceive scale as you see the canyon's walls plummet more than two thousand feet--almost straight down in many places--to the Gunnison River's thin channel far below. The cliffs here are more than twice the height of those in other well-known southwestern places like Horseshoe Bend, or many places in Zion National Park.

Actually, I should have been more uneasy there at the cliff top given my typical discomfort near the edge of such precipices, but there was something calming about the place, and I stayed for hours until well after sunset. Maybe it was the unexpected silence, as the tumultuous rapids far beneath my ears didn't have the energy to reach me with their roar. Or it could have been the graceful birds riding thermals hundreds of feet beneath my perch, too distant to identify for certain even though they were swooping by outcrops well more than halfway up the canyon wall. It was a beautiful night for light like this.

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Tags:   Black Canyon Gunnison National Park Colorado Montrose Sunset Dusk Evening Nikon photobenedict Beautiful Cliff Gorge Chasm Canyon River Clouds Painted Wall Landscape

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Well after the sun's orb had disappeared behind the distant mountain crests, and nearing the end of a long sunset show, a fifteen-second long exposure reveals thin clouds still rich in pink light streaking across the sky and still waters of Cushman Lake, near Telluride, Colorado.

Cushman Lake's pleasant surrounds beckoned one evening in Telluride last fall when the skies started to look more promising than previously expected and schedule constraints prevented any longer journeys. Such an idyllic little roadside lake, stunning in autumn, and a copse of aspens hid the road itself from view and helped lend a faraway feel to this close wonder.

Beautiful as this sunset was, perhaps the thing I'll remember most about this evening was a little quirk that happened a few minutes after this shot. We worked our way a mile or so up the road to an isolated area of open fields atop a ridge where we could still see some colorful light lingering among the silhouetted peaks. Breaking out our cameras again, we decided to take in the last morsels of the night's show, noticing that the wind in our ears there contrasted with the stillness we had just left at the lake. Then with the wind came the tiniest sound of music, a faintly familiar but not quite discernable tune that built and built for minutes among the breezes until it became unmistakable: It was Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf, from somewhere in the forested hillside across the road. Unexpected for sure, but awesome, and memorable as it turns out. I guess our stopping place wasn't so isolated after all, and given some of the grand homes that seem to be tucked into the mountainside forests around Telluride, it could have been Meatloaf himself singing away the pandemic on his patio in those woods for all I know!

Anyway, thanks for viewing!

Tags:   Cushman Lake Telluride Colorado Autumn Fall Sunset Light Nikon Landscape photobenedict Beautiful Calm Still Water Pond Lake Aspen Color San Juan Mountains Ophir Aspens Dusk Night Rocky Mountains

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A touch of warm light brightens the pleasing rounded, abstract forms in the Adobe badlands near Delta, Colorado.

Finding ourselves with a free morning in Montrose--unfortunately just before fall color erupted in the San Juans--Josh and Sky and I decided to check out the badlands so visible outside of town around Montrose and Delta. Some quick looking on google earth led us up a dirt road in the pre-dawn dark until we found something of a parking area. We took a trail down from the bluff and headed west over the the undulating landscape, wondering what the view would be once dawn approached and we could see beyond the range of our headlamps. Soon the brightening twilight revealed badland terrain more vast than we expected, and we scampered up to the highest nearby ridge to best take in the morning light and shadow that elevates the badlands so.

It was an impromptu outing, and our photographic efforts in that unfamiliar place were pretty random. But the winds were calm and, unusually for that hour, we were suddenly inspired to turn on some music while we welcomed the new day among those badland formations of not-quite-dirt and not-quite-stone. It turned out to be a great morning.

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