Aspens Are Kickin' As-tonishingly!

We checked out at 10 am sharp, headed downtown for coffee and a pastry, and took this one picture of a blazing tree in a tiny little park between buildings.

We wound up the hill out of town, me asking B. to pull over every few minutes so I could take a picture...

And he kept saying "Just wait...it will get better!"

He was right, of course!

I got such a kick out of how aspen color change races through the dark fir tree groves.

There were very few wildflowers now...how could they compete with the aspen anyway?

Now why are the trees closest to the mountain orange, then in the middle of the grove they are green, then back to yellow again?

Bernie explained it has to do with water and light.

I still don't really get it.

I think it is just evidence that God does finger painting within tree stands sometimes.

The Utah sky always seems to be blindingly bright blue, and against the aspen? Double the blue's intensity!

I call the dots beauty marks, or freckles, or the trail of falling stars that have shimmered through the canopy of leaves.

The deep, deep greens of the fir trees are the perfect background for the explosive color event.

(I really like the picture above a lot!)

Like I said: why is one stand orange, another greenish yellow and still another is gold?

I do know that aspen spread via root system. All the trees in one stand are part of each other, so maybe each groups genetics are unique?

Do you hear a "WHEEEEEE....I'm painting the forest YELLOW for FALLLLLL!!!!!" when you see this shot?

(I do. The yellow formed a race track design in my mind.)

I've mentioned to Bernie that I personally think that after all the fir trees succumb to the pine bark beetle, that aspen will completely take over the forest. Time will tell if my theory is correct. Meanwhile, I do love the dark green/yellow contrast.

(How many pictures do you think you would have taken over two hours of this kind of scenery? I took 160. Just for the record.)

The road over Guardsman's Pass is just winding enough that every switch back down the mountain delivers another reason to stop the car and take some more pictures.

Fall has not peaked yet....and with our current dry spell and warm temps, I am hoping the colors change will last for quite awhile longer.

The mountains in the distance are naturally that color, but with a little imagination I can picture them snow capped.

And if we do get snow while the colors are still in full up, I will be racing to take this shot again!

The orange bowl in the distance: what a hike that would be to take right now.

It was kind of funny to see bike riders stop, balance their bikes between their legs and start snapping pictures. It wasn't so funny when cars ahead of us stopped suddenly on curves ahead of us and a camera would poke out the window to get a shot where there was no roadside parking.


Stand back everyone...it is happening...autumn is about to ERUPT FROM THE TREES!!!!


I should of kept track of how many times I had Bernie pull over...

He was such a good sport about it....and we decided we should get a SLR for him to use on these trips. Anyone have suggestions for a good model?

I'd give the Utah color change scene a "10" .

This just totally puzzled me: why on earth did only one half of the aspen forest turn yellow? And manage to split down the center in such a perfectly straight line too.

OK...enough chatter. Just look and enjoy.

I made special request that we head for the pond, actually Midway Reservoir.

I had promised myself last spring that I would return to see it in the fall

Reflective water is always so great to photograph...

A day with no breeze, the sun bright over head, and I could go nuts taking pictures in a place like this.

My patient husband waiting for me to finish up.

Another autumn color eruption.

As we wound down Big Cottonwood Canyon to Wasatch, the aspen were left behind and the red aspect of autumn danced into view. We agreed that on Sunday we would check the roads North East of us to see what colors were happening over there.

Of course my favorite fall colored subject: Tiggie.

He has been through a lot this summer; you can catch up with his story on his own blog.

Thank you to all of you for praying for us as we treated his ears with drops. The drops didn't work in the end, and he had surgery to address the ear issues, then more surgery for teeth issues and some cancer.

He's pretty thin right now; I just hope that he puts on some weight before the snow flies here.

He's a good old guy...and I'd can always sense the best of autumn colors whenever I see the sun shining on his fur.