Golden Meadow: This view during a recent trip to western Colorado shows a meadow of golden grasses and bushes with a tiny stand of gold aspens shining in front of a hillside of green. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Sheep: A bonus scene while driving through the West Elk Mountains in Colorado was to see a herd of sheep grazing in a meadow at the edge of the forest. We enjoyed watching as two dogs kept the herd gathered and moving as they grazed from the meadow into the pines and fir trees of the forest. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
On a recent trip to western Colorado, we drove the Grand Mesa National Scenic Byway. While in the higher elevations driving across the mesa, we spotted pockets of shining gold fall color.
Seeing the fall color on the Grand Mesa prompted me to consider driving a favorite route for leaf peeking during the fall color season during our travels back to Denver. In the West Elk Mountains, Gunnison County Road 12 leads from Colorado Highway 133 near Paonia State Park on the west end to the town of Crested Butte, Colo. on the eastern end.
County Road 12 is a well-maintained dirt and gravel road that takes drivers over Kebler Pass and through some beautiful mountain meadows. Many large stands of aspens cover the mountains and grasses, and wildflowers coat the meadows. This drive is beautiful in summer and fall.
We drove the road last Saturday, September 18, in hopes of seeing some of the fall beauty of the West Elk Mountains. What we saw was nice fall colors across the meadows and ground cover under the aspen stands but the aspens were still dressed in their summer green! I would guess at least 90 per cent of the aspens had not begun to show their golden fall colors.
While the discovery of gold was less than successful, we thoroughly enjoyed our trek across the mountain pass. We saw enough color to satisfy our desire to peek into the fall season and some beautiful mountain countryside along the way.
We won’t have a chance to make it back to the West Elk Mountains in the next few days but another mountain drive closer to home in search of gold will be on our schedule during the coming days.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Summer Aspens, Fall Grasses: We saw this scene often last week during our drive on Gunnison County Road 12 in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado. The grasses and wildflowers were well past their prime of summer colors, but the aspen trees were still dressed in their summer green. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Specks of Gold: Following the twists and turns across the West Elk Mountains did reveal specks of gold on some of the aspen trees. We clearly missed the peak of color in this area by a week or so. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Green and Gold: Another stop along our journey in quest of gold revealed a green and gold base on the ground but the leaves in the trees were still almost completely green. The lone fir tree lends a touch of contrast to the light colors of the aspen tree trunks and lighter colors on the ground. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com