Returning home, I made my way back via the Ohio Creek road and headed up Ohio Pass. On the cliff face, the afternoon sun caught these aspen trees on the edges of the scree slope.
In the following image, I chose a composition where the line of aspen trees climbed up one side of the cliff face, over the top, and then continued down the other side. Almost like an inverted V-shape.
I spent time making some images of ferns that grow at the base of most of the aspen forests. I have never been very successful with capturing these ferns. Add to self: maybe next time?
During the course of the afternoon, the storm clouds over Castle Mountain grew in intensity. The color image does not do justice to this big storm, so I converted to a monochrome black and white image. This shows the contrast of the mountain cliffs, dark skies and low clouds.
After reaching the top of Ohio Pass, it is a short distance to Kebler Pass. I made my way down to the base of the pass, near Horse Ranch Park, to make this image. I like the way that the mountain meadow forms an S-curve as it winds up through the forest.
When the aspen leaves change colors in the fall, the edges of the green leaves are lined with yellow. Over time, this yellow lining then spreads inwards until the green is replaced. I managed to find one tree close to the roadside that showed this progression of color change, below.
The aspen tree trunks have some interesting bark patterns. The following pattern looks like a helmet. Did Darth Vader visit the aspen forests?
Finally, along came a spider!
After making these images, I headed home through Crested Butte, Cottonwood Pass and Buena Vista.