Mount Sopris catches the first light of dawn through a veil of high clouds that create a peaceful feeling over the autumn scene outside of Carbondale, Colorado.

Everyone was looking forward to a banner year for fall colors last year with all the moisture we had received throughout the year, but it ended up being kind of a disappointment. The aspen trees were so healthy that they just didn’t want to start turning when then temps got lower. Many of the leaves went from green to brown.

It figures that my good friend and fellow photographer from Iowa, Luke Tingley, would plan a trip out here the first of October to hit colors at their peak. We normally would head down to the San Juans in southwest Colorado, but they had barely started to turn yet. Fortunately, we did find some areas in the state that had pretty good color and we made the most of what we had.

We camped outside of Carbondale and found that the best place to shoot this morning was right outside our door! The clouds broke as dawn arrived and filtered the light as the sun started to shine on Mount Sopris, making for a very tranquil scene.

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