Autumn in Colorado

I've been away from my blog for a while due to assorted reasons (family and generally being busy), but here's a quick Skywatch Friday post from a hike last weekend to Lilypad Lake in Summit County. First is one of my look-up-with-the-fisheye shots.

The aspen were at their colorful peak.

Here's Lilypad Lake - the reward for hiking up to 9,900 feet (3 km) elevation.

Comments are welcome but I don't promise to respond promptly at this time. Hopefully I can become a regular blogger again at some point.

More Colorado Fall Colors

Here's another Skywatch Friday shot from my Lilypad Lake hike a couple of weeks ago.

Trees & Plane

Here's another Skywatch Friday shot from my Lilypad Lake hike, with evergreens, an aspen tree, and a plane contrail for good measure.

Summit County Fall Colors

We spent the weekend in Breckenridge, and I did a couple of local hikes. The first one was to Lilypad Lake. The local color was near its peak, maybe a little past.

The trail had some lovely views over the valley and reservoir.

I love the carpet of fallen leaves.

Lilypad Lake is at an elevation of 9,940 feet (3,030 meters) above sea level. The trail goes further but I turned back here.

I enjoyed more autumn colors on the way down.

Our World Tuesday

Colorado Autumn

While fall in Colorado doesn't have the spectacular variety of the East Coast, we do get the golden aspen trees.

These photos were taken on a local hike a few days ago.

Fall in Colorado is one of my favorite times of year. And it means ski season is just around the corner!

Our World Tuesday

Aspen!

It's that time of year, and bright aspen against a blue, autumn Colorado sky makes for a fine Skywatch Friday shot. This one was taken on a Sunday hike with my 6.5mm ultrawide fisheye lens.

It's Autumn

It's definitely autumn - we had the first freeze last week at our house.

The leaves are mostly gone at the higher elevations but I found these last weekend.

Skywatch Friday

First Fall Colors

In our neighborhood...

Skywatch Friday

Autumn Color

The autumn color is past its best in my part of the country, as I discovered on a hike on Saturday. I found almost no trees with their leaves still intact.

So I decided to focus on the remaining aspen leaves instead of whole trees, using my 50mm f/1.4 to narrow the depth of field.

I liked the results, especially this last shot.

Blue Monday

Our World Tuesday

Palmer Reservoir Hike

Last Sunday I went for a hike to Palmer Reservoirs. There was a little sunlight filtering through clouds, but I wasn't able to get the great fall foliage photos I wanted, but this is what I got. I'll start by showing the smaller of the two dams, which people have painted - I'm linking it to the Monday Mural meme.

Of course I have to show the reservoir, even if the light was flat making for marginal photos.

Just off the trail I saw this view, looking up a steep hill.

Here's another bush that was changing colors.

And of course, the aspen grove which was my destination.

A lot of leaves had already fallen - this low shot was my favorite from the hike.

Our World Tuesday

More Tree Photos

Here are a couple of recent photos of trees. First, near the Great Sand Dunes a couple of weeks ago.

Next, on Sunday hiking near Palmer Lake.

Skywatch Friday

Fall Colors

I haven't made it into the mountains this year, so here are a few previously unpublished shots from a hike exactly one year ago, to the day.

Blue Monday

Our World Tuesday

It's Fall!

It's fall, and although I haven't made it into the mountains yet, they will soon look like this.

It's a scanned slide from 1995, and it's for Vintage Weekly and Our World Tuesday.

More Fall Aspen

This week's Skywatch Friday entry is of a pair of aspen trees reaching towards the sky in Fox Run Park one week ago.

Aspen Skies

For Skywatch Friday, here are a couple more photos from Sunday's hike in Emerald Valley of the aspen trees turning their classic gold.

By this time of year we could see snow any time.

Fall in Colorado

Fall has fully arrived in Colorado, as the aspen have turned. A five-mile hike on Sunday in Emerald Valley yielded plenty of natural beauty and photos, starting with a single tree surrounded by evergreens.

But there was more to see as we gained elevation.

And despite the drought which has stressed the trees, in places the trail had plenty of color.

And finally a meadow gave us great views of mountainside aspen groves.

That's my part of Our World Tuesday.

River of Aspen

For this week's Tina's PicStory theme of "leafs" as well as my weekly Our World Tuesday post, here's a photo from the middle of October showing a river of bright yellow aspen leaves, taken on a hike above the Palmer Lake Reservoirs.

Of course, these bright colors are long-gone.

Local Fall Color

I wasn't able to get into the mountains to see the fall color this weekend due to work. But I did get to walk around our local park, so here are a couple of shots from there taken on Friday evening.

And that's my part of Our World this week, and also my post for Watery Wednesday. Thanks to Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, and Sandy for running this fabulous meme!

Yellow, White & Blue

I keep thinking all the trees are finished dropping their leaves in my part of the world, but because Colorado has so many micro-climates, I keep finding more color. These photographs were taken on Saturday near Denver (specifically in Greenwood Village), in Westlands Park; I was there to watch my wife play tennis. First up is a reflection off a lake,including a bench on which I'd have enjoyed sitting for a while as the day was beautiful.

And here is a view walking out of the tennis club.

I'm sure there are lots of Halloween and fall foliage photos over at My World Tuesday, so visit it today!

Final Fall Foliage

In my world, fall is quickly coming to an end and winter will be here before long. Here are the last shots of colored fall foliage in my area.

These shots were all taken on a Saturday hike up the Palmer Lake Reservoirs trail.

Most of the leaves are already gone.

Still, by picking carefully it was possible to find an occasional impressive tree.

The My World Tuesday meme contains links to many interesting and fun blog posts.