Ode to Aspen

This time of the year, there’s nothing else to do but praise aspen because the mountains are radiating with their color, as they give their all, put on the final show of the year. There’s not enough time to hike every trail where these elegant trees grow,  each trail with a different mood, although I do my best. I've gotten very little work done these past few weeks.

On the Hallowell Trail in  Rocky Mountain National Park (right), the aspen form a radiant canopy over the rocky trail, as it squeezes between the steep hillside on one side and the creek on the other.

It’s a small creek with a large presence, plunging down the hill, forming waterfalls that slip over dark rocks covered with moss.

Bordering the creek are maroon and green striped fireweed, pale yellow ferns, the shiny red of the chokecherry, and green grasses shading to gold.

 

Up farther, past the meadow, is a thick grove of aspens that are taller than most seen here on the eastern side of the Rockies, each tree reaching farther upward for the sunlight.

Sometimes the most beautiful aspen trails have the fewest trees.At the Finch Lake trail  in Wild Basin, they blaze out among the darker pines, as if the sun had broken into bits and fallen among the more somber trees.  

 

On this narrow steep trail, aspens frame the hillside across the valley, the Twin Sisters to the northeast and the massive block of Mount Meeker to the northwest.

At the top, the trail turns to the south, where the rocky terrain turns into a gentle meadow, where the white sensuous trunks emerge from the grasses and the air is filled with the rich smells of decaying leaves and pines. With the sun shining behind the aspen it looks like the forest is on fire.

I could sit here forever, leaves gently floating to the ground, the sky a dark blue, nuthatches scrambling up and down the trees.

There’s such a peace here, underneath the soft, sweet shelter of aspens and ponderosas, that will slip away soon, as the leaves slip from the trees.

When the aspen leaves flutter, my heart goes pitter-patter. Is it love? Must be aspen love.

 

 

Comments

[julene Bair]

Sitting in the airport, travel weary although I have not even, as yet, embarked on the first leg of today's flights, your posts bring respite, peace, and so much vicarious pleasure. Oh to be in those aspen woods now, but I know things could be far worse. I could be a resident of Jing-Jin-Ji.

[Sally Hanson]

You have made me envious! I remember how beautiful this is. Aspens all seasons that high status. I could really use a infusion of this in my cells right now! Wish I were there. :(

[Jennifer Woodhull]

Aspen love, indeed … My favorite fall aspen-viewing locale to date has been Cimarron Road, in central Colorado, on the way to Ouray. But you might be changing my mind about that!

[shoney]

Wow! Thank you for the beautiful photos!

[Brent Zeinert]

Beautiful.

[Julene Bair]

I've seen aspen compared to candles many times, and it occurred to me the other day that they, and the cottonwoods on the plains, really do give off light. It may be reflected light, but still they brighten their surroundings, just like the sun. Loved reading your gorgeous descriptions of aspens.