For weeks we had been searching our favorite spots for changing aspen but whole groves stayed stubbornly green.  Then suddenly came the explosion of color, a stunning mosaic of gold, orange, red and emerald green aspen everywhere—Bear Lake, Alberta Falls, the Peak to Peak Highway, Endovalley.  It was as if nature couldn’t hold back any longer.

My wife Lori and I woke early Sunday morning and drove to Bear Lake through aspen groves in their full glory.  We parked in the lot and walked around Bear Lake before hiking up a steep trail into a patch of orange aspen.  I was content to hang out in the aspen, take a million pictures, and breathe in the clear, crisp air of fall as the leaves rustled like paper coins around me.  But Lori was on the go, up the steep Flattop Trail before I could catch my breath.

By name alone, one would expect the Flattop Trail to be flat.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The trail climbs aggressively west, with the occasional vistas through the pines of Longs Peak in the distance.  Below us groves of yellow aspen smudged the green-carpeted mountains.  We could see tiny Alberta Falls, like a white fingernail clipping, in a distant valley.

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Tags: Fall, foliage, hiking, trails

Last Sunday was a gorgeous blue day with just the hint of fall in the air, a perfect day for driving into Rocky Mountain National Park and searching for some Colorado fall foliage to view.  Whether it was the wet spring or the mild fall temperatures, it seems like the aspen are turning late this year.  I decided to consult the experts.

According to the U.S. Forest Service: “A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors.”

That sounded like the Rocky Mountains in Northern Colorado to me.

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Seeking a calm respite at the end of a busy Estes Park summer, my wife Lori and I hiked to Mills Lake recently.  We started early, parking at the Glacier Gorge parking lot at 6:45 a.m. and hitting the trail.  Because we could see our breath, we layered fleece and wore gloves, but we quickly heated up after a mile of gentle climbing through aspen and spruce.

At Alberta Falls we pulled off a layer as

a fellow nearby snapped a picture of the most popular waterfall in the Park.

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Tags: hiking, lake, mills, mountain, national, park, rocky, trail, trails

Who doesn’t love Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous highway in the United States that reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet above sea level?  Now our favorite road will be in the news.   Colorado Getaways will highlight Trail Ridge Road and Rocky Mountain National Park this Saturday, September 3, at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 4 (CBS).  It will show historic photographs, snowplowing pictures from the epic spring snows of 2011, and the new Continental Divide Connector Trail along the road.

The show will also highlight $34.2 million worth of improvements Rocky Mountain National Park made on 38.7 miles of Trail Ridge since 2005, the most major work since the highway was completed in 1932.

If you live out-of-state, an online version of the show will be posted on the Internet by next week.

Tags: ridge, road, trail

When our family found out we were hosting a family reunion in Colorado at Estes Park, everyone wanted to come: the folks from Florida, sisters from Massachusetts and Arizona, and brothers from Iowa, Texas and Littleton, Colorado.  Even our long lost cousins from Ketchikan, Alaska made the trip to the lower 48 to attend, the first time that our extended family finally came together.

And it was Estes Park that brought them here.

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Tags: biking, family, gathering, golf, hiking, reunion