Monsoon Autumn in the San Juans
This summer and autumn here in southwest Colorado have been wacky with the weather, to say the least. The summer's drought, heatwaves, and wildfires switched to consistent monsoon rains and thunderstorms for most of September and even still in October. This autumn has felt almost like summertime with warm sunny mornings, building clouds, then lightning, thunder, and rain in the afternoons. Except the mountainsides are covered in golden aspens!
During the first week of October I went out on five hikes through the aspen forests, mostly in the Telluride area. Though I was chased by thunderstorms on a few occasions, for the most part they were peaceful strolls – nothing too ambitious, mostly just zenning out while wandering through the glorious quaking aspens.
Boskoff Peak (13,123 ft) reflects in a lake as a thunderstorm rolls over. I was standing in a grassy meadow next to this lake hoping to photograph the lightning bolts, but when one bolt hit like a cannon in the valley not too far off to my right, I figured it was time to pack it up and run for the cover of the forest!
A golden aspen forest below Wilson Peak (14,022 ft).
Golden aspens in front of the Sneffels Range and Telluride valley. The dark summit of Mount Sneffels is visible poking out from behind the ridge in the center background.
A grove of brilliant red aspens along Red Mountain Pass.
Quaking aspens towering over a carpet of yellow aspen leafs.
A pointillist splash of neon orange quaking aspen leaves.
A glorious grove of tangerine neon orange aspens.
Luscious orange and red aspen colors.
A brilliant sunset and golden aspen forest above the small town of Ophir, with Mount Wilson and the San Miguel Range in the distance.
