Fall Colors, 2023

This week, I spent a couple of days in the Gunnison area to make some images of the Colorado Fall colors. After arriving at Taylor Reservoir, the aspen on the far bank had taken on their fall colors.

Above the dam wall, there is a rock wall and a line of aspen growing up the slope. In previous years, I never managed to get a decent image that shows the contrast between the gray cliff face and the yellow aspen.

After reaching Gunnison, I setup a tent at the campsite and then headed north into the Ohio Creek valley. In the Gunnison area, there are plenty of cottonwood, willows and other trees (apart from aspen) that typically have fabulous fall colors. This is one location that I often visit. This year I stopped along the roadside. After a few minutes, I noticed the following scene where the trees lined the creek. I had never captured images at this particular location. The angle of the sun created perfect backlight and shadows for this scene.

From this location, I headed further to the base of Ohio Pass. This location always has great fall colors. I this following image, I focused my attention on the red and gold colors of these trees.

The west side of the road always offers fabulous backlighting in the afternoon sun. I framed these small aspen trees between the two large aspen trunks.

There are also willow bushes that still had green summer colors that contrasted with the golden yellow aspens.

In the following scene, I looks like the sun is lighting the center of the trees, but casting a dark shadow around the rim of the trees.

Across the far side of the valley, a huge pine forest dominated the landscape. However, there was a gap that created a triangular sliver of light in the field.

From here, I made my way up Ohio Pass. As I rounded a bend, I came across the following scene where the low sunlight grazed the top of the trees. A few minutes later, the trees were in shadow.

At the top of the pass is another pine forest. This was the first time that I noticed the low sun picking out the red ground cover.

These two days were great for viewing the fall colors. Mid-week was great because of less traffic and fewer visitors than would be the case for weekends.