I thought I'd document the change of Aspen colors this year. There is something special about the "quaking Aspens". Even before the fall season, the Aspens are beautiful trees. The leaves are a darker green on one side than the other and the way the wind shakes the leaves back and forth, it makes for a very interesting visual effect. The Apens almost appear to shimmering or glittering when the wind rustles the leaves up. Hence, "quaking Aspens". 

From the quaking, to root system the clones come from, to the "eyes" that native Indians believed was their ancestors watching over the land, to the bark being similar to aspirin and wildlife chew on for a pain reliever, to powder on the bark that serves as a natural sunblock, Aspens are incredibly interesting trees!

That said, it is the fall colors of the Aspens that are the most amazing aspect of the trees. "Leaf peeping". People take days in the fall just to drive around to see the Aspens. And it's a worthwhile endeavor. Most leaves turn this golden yellow color, but every so often you'll see some orange and red.

Below is an example of the "quaking Aspens". 

August 29th was my first sighting of some of the leaves turning. 

Just a a handful of leaves. The semi translucency of the leaves makes for an interesting visual when you get the tree between you and the sun. When you get an entire Aspen grove between you and the sun, it's spectacular. 

It does seem the turning has been slow this year. The experts seem to be suggesting Aspen season could go a little later in the fall this year. Works for me.

9/16 Update

I stop here on Pikes Peak Highway so guests can get pictures of these Aspens. I've gotten some, "ohhh, so pretty" at this spot. They are some of the most vibrant up there at this point. You can see the ones in the distance starting to turn. 

These young trees are on the way to the Catamount Reservoirs, one of our favorite places.  This is all just getting started. 

The natural color of the Aspen leaves are the fall colors.  Chlorophyll fills the leaves during the summer, making them green.

During the fall, the Chlorophyll leaves.  I got a close up of this phenomenon in the pictures above.  Quite fascinating. 

These are some of the popping colors of the Aspens on our Cripple Creek/Back Country Experience today.

9/20 Update

The colors are changing rapidly. 

These are the photos from the same spots posted earlier on Pikes Peak Highway and the road to the Catamount Reservoir.
This is just a 4 day difference.

Some recent photos of the Aspens on Pikes Peak Highway. 

9/22 Update 

People have been enjoying getting pictures with the Apens!  Fun!

Remember early on when I said some Aspens are more orange and red?  Here's a red one....

Some dull chemistry and stuff later, the Apsens with a higher sugar content are more on the red side. 

The golden Aspens are their claim to fame, but the darker oranges and reds tend spruce things up a bit!   

While finding yourself in the middle of an Aspen grove in the fall is uniquely spectacular, Aspens grow in the forest and usually within a

bunch of pine trees.  The pines are always green, and seeing the Aspen colors peppered throughout is pretty neat. 

The two images above demonstrate this.  All the lighter green you see, will eventually be the fall colors. 

9/27 Update

Contrasting this image with the one above it, you can see the Aspens peppering the landscape just a little bit more. 

This the red one I took a picture of earlier that stands beside a yellow one.  There's just not a lot of red ones around here.  They are

pretty neat though.  I wished there was more.

Above is the road to the Catamount Reservoirs off the Pikes Peak Highway.  These Aspens are slowly turning.  It is a wonderful

drive through this area when they've finally turned.  I'm getting a little excited.  It won't be long. 

Above is an image collection of some of the colors on Pikes Peak Highway. There's places with some great colors that there is no place to pull off the road and get good pictures.  There are some great places to get some pictures with pull off areas but they haven't turned yet. 

Sadly, all good things must come to an end.  Above are the same tree, and the one I took several pictures of people in front of. It was

one of the first to really get some deep color, but is now one of the first to lose its leaves. 

Luckily though, I have found a new spot to safely pull off and get some pictures of guests with some Aspens. 

People love the Aspens!  I can't say I blame them.


10/02 Update

This image is from western Gold Camp Road, part of the Cripple Creek/Back Country Experience during the fall.  It truly is an amazing site to see the Aspens peppered into the pine trees like this.  This is one of my favorite aspects of Aspen season. 

This has been a somewhat odd Aspen season.  As you can see here, some of the Aspens haven't turned yetwhile others are bright colors and some have lost their leaves already.  They are typically a bit more uniform in their stages.

Above is an image collection of some of the Aspens we saw this day. 

I saw this little red guy last year.  This is the the one in the area.

10/05 Update

Image collection of some of the color still on Pikes Peak. 

Alas, some trees have already lost all their leaves, and this group is thinning out pretty quickly. 

They don't last very long after their peak, and they lose their leaves.

10/09 Update

We found this patch of red Aspens today.  It's unusual to find this many in this area.  Very nice. 

I like how this picture turned out.  Aspens with fresh snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains! 

The timing was right. 

A few images from the Cripple Creek/Back Country Experience.  You can find some nice colors still, but they are fading fast.

 

10/14 Update 

We still do have some nice color on Pikes Peak in some places.  This season has been a little odd in that there's a staggered timing of the Aspens turning colors.  Some leaves are already gone, and some have just started turning. 

We don't normally have any trees with leaves still on them this time of year.

Above is an example of some of the Aspens have just barely turned this late in the season. The trees to the left still have some green leaves, and not that many of them either.  I love the more orange colored Aspens (on the right).

This is from the same spot as one of the photos above in the 10/5 update.  There are no leaves left on this Aspen stand. 

It won't be much longer and the season will be done.

10/21 Update

There's only a small portion of Aspens with any color at all.  Many of the ones left look like the above.  These trees likely will have all their leaves gone in the next few days. 

As I stated earlier, the turning of color has been odd this season.  This tree is still more green than yellow.   

This one is still more green than yellow as well, but the leaves are getting crumbly and ready to fall off.  Many already have.  We had a late snow this year (May 21), a dry spring, and a wet summer for Colorado Springs.  I'm sure this has something to do with the strange behavior this season, but I can't say why. 

Update 10/25

We had some serious winds come over the weekend.  The leaves on the Aspens are all but gone.  Some of the Aspens in the lower elevations still have a few leaves, but the color isn't very vibrant.   

Season is over.  Until next year.