A brief trip to Colorado
2024-09-23PineyRiverRanchSept24Web
Last week, I spent a few days in the Colorado Rockies to sample its peak for the fall color season. Late September is one of my favorite times of the year to be in Colorado. This is the typical time when aspen trees peak with their golden leaves. The picture above is from Piney Lake, north of Vail. It features views of the Gore Range, which is in my top 5 favorite mountain ranges within the state of Colorado. In the vicinity of Piney Lake are groves of aspen trees.
2024-09-24PineyRiverRanchAspensWeb
I hiked upstream from Piney River Ranch and into the Eagles Nest Wilderness. I hiked up a smaller unmarked trail that led to this view of one of the mountains in the Gore Range. I happened to arrive right at the best sidelight as it climbed over the horizon and it made for a nice little photographed scene that was my favorite shot from last week.
Eagles Nest Wilderness in Colorado
I would also hike into the Holy Cross Wilderness, south of the of the Beaver Creek Ski Resort.
2024-09-25MaroonBellsFromHolyCrossWeb
This is the view from 12,000 feet above sea level looking toward the Maroon Bells Wilderness south of Aspen. Can you spot the famous Maroon Bells in the distance? They are toward the left side of the above image, about 30 miles away. Also, notice the band of purple light in the sky below the pink. That is the Earth's shadow before sunrise, caused by the curvature of the Earth.
Here was another pretty scene with sidelight. This is Lake Charles, which requires a hike a few miles to see.
2024-09-25LakeCharlesWeb
This was above where aspen trees grow, but there was also some golden grass to go along with the evergreen trees. In the distance is Fools Peak.
2024-09-25MysticIslandLakePanoWeb
Seen above is Mystic Island Lake. It is about a mile further past Lake Charles.
On a personal note, those of you in and around Northwest Arkansas may have seen me on 40/29, the local ABC affiliate. I am currently filling in for weekend weather on Saturday and Sunday mornings. My degree was in meteorology and I was once a full time television meteorologist for a decade. I will probably be doing this for the remainder of the year.
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Comments
It was this nice blend of high mountain scenes, crisp air, and those kinds of quiet, calm towns that somehow make everything feel slower, but in a good way. Even the simple drives between each stop didn’t feel like a chore, more like a piece of the whole thing, you know, not just the moving from one place to another. Honestly, it was a solid break from routine and it reminded me how invigorating a scenery shift can be. Later, when I was browsing online, I ran into the phrase “product description writers for hire” in this completely unrelated search, but it caught my attention anyway, kinda oddly interesting, in its own way.