There is a large aspen grove that sits on top of a ridge down the valley from my home outside of Buena Vista. It is so large that in the fall, I can keep tabs on the changing colors by just looking out my window. That makes it easy for me to tell when it is time to take the forty-five minute drive over there.

The area is quite accurately called “Aspen Ridge”. A rocky dirt road winds for miles through the center of thousands of aspen trees. I have spent so much time up there that I practically know which trees are where. Last fall I decided to spend some time trying to get some panoramic shots of the forest for something different and I knew just where to go. This grove sits uphill from the road and the trees have fairly straight trunks. If you have been in many aspen groves, you know that some seem aren’t so straight! The sun streamed through the aspens casting shadows on the golden forest floor. Since I was shooting uphill, I was able to include some of the blue sky in the background.

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