Yesterday I took the day off to do some Colorado Leaf Peeping with my wife and mom-in-law. It was a beautiful day!
We drove Highway 24 west, to Divide, Colorado, hanging a left on Highway 67, to Cripple Creek/Victor. On Highway 67 we headed to Victor, Colorado, a still-active mining town, on Highway 64-cum-81, then took 67 into Cripple Creek. After Cripple Creek, we hooked off to the left, and took Teller County Road 1 to 11, met up with Highway 9 to 50, and went through Canon City and Penrose on our way home. From Teller Country Road 1 through Penrose, there isn’t any leaf peeping—none—but it is a gorgeous drive in its own right up to Highway 50. But don’t drive it if you’re looking for golden aspen leaves.
However, do take the drive from Highway 24 through Victor and Cripple Creek!
This drive is Colorado gorgeous! It may last another week, or just days, I don’t know when it started, but I’m thinking it’s already been about a week, because last week Highway 24 was packed, and that highway isn’t normally that packed this time of year, except for when everyone’s heading out of town for some sort of vacation, and the only thing going on now is leaf peeping. A friend asked me to use my “superpowers” to keep the changing leaves bright and awesome so she and her boyfriend could catch them on their Harley trip, but I don’t know if I can. I can hold off rain when I’m mowing my lawn, but…I’m doing my best, Mandy!
Here’s a link for the rest of Colorado.
Enjoy the turning leaves wherever you reside!
Happy Fall!
Beautiful, Frank! Fall is hands down my favourite season. The leaves are already in full colour up here in the North, and in about a week they’ll all be gone, but for right now? There isn’t a more beautiful sight in the world!
Yes, I DO love autumn and the changing of the leaves! The Northeast has some great color, but Colorado does a stellar job with yellow! :-]
That’s the only thing I miss living out here in the desert. Keep the pics coming! I needs me my fall colors.
Wow that last photo was remarkable… like a stream of yellow cut into the mountains! What I miss is the fire of K.C. With so many maples we were totally spoiled. There are some in our neighborhood but not so much in the mountains. Our Maple this year turned yellow instead of red…. maybe because it was so wet this year? Not sure. Our staghorn sumacs turned a brilliant red-orange but only stayed that way 1 day before dropping so I missed the opportunity to take photos. 🙁
Thanks!
I’ve heard the yellow are the result of lots of sunlight, while the reds and oranges a function of moisture and temperature. Not sure if it is also the tree type that plays into any of this; it’s been a while since I read up on it….
I’m coming – just keep everything nice & fall-ish for another week!
I’m tryin’! :-] At least at OUR altitude….
Great pics, Frank! Fall is often such a nice respite after a hot summer (not this year, though), so it’s easy to see why so many people like it. It looks beautiful and feels so nice. Always makes me think of the Alfred Hitchcock film “The Trouble With Harry,” which is filled with striking autumn photography.
I love the changing seasons, and love the neat fall colors, for sure! I once joked to one of my brothers about wanting to see a tree with BLUE leaves…then, out in California, I actually found just such a tree! Don’t remember if that was its “fall colors” or its natural sate, but it definitely was cool looking!
Unsure if I’d seen that Hitchcock film. Sounds familiar. It gets beautiful out here, in Colorado, but I do miss the Northeast colors! When I was a kid, my NYS Dept of Environmental Conversation (D.E.C.) Forest Ranger dad took me with him during one fall season, where we flew in the D.E.C. helicopter over all these beautiful fall colors, between Ray Brook, NY and the Lake Clear airport! It was SO cool!
Thanks for stopping by, Paul!
It’s a good film. Not one of Hitchcock’s most well-known or best, but still very entertaining (at least for my money). It was Shirley MacLaine’s debut, and also stars John Forsythe and Edmund Gwynn. They filmed up on Vermont, and then actually gathered up thousands of leaves after they’d fallen after a storm and brought them to the studio to decorate all the “trees” they had for the interior photography!
Inneresting…I’ll have to make a point to catch that film! Thanks!