Aspen Trees

Fall is always a wild card in Colorado.  I moved here on September 30th, 2011 when it was 90 degrees.   Four weeks later the metro Denver area had 6+ inches of snow.  September in the midwest was my favorite time of year but I'm slowly learning Colorado fall is a bit different.  So far this year it has been very pretty and quite warm, but we are expecting snow at the end of this week (Loveland even opened today for the ski season!).  You can never be over prepared for the weather out here! 

In mid September we decided to drive from Estes Park to Nederland along the Peak to Peak highway.  We've heard this was the best time to see the Aspen Trees in the fall.  They were all beautiful yellows and oranges scattered between the evergreens and snow capped mountains.  

We had driven parts of the highway when we hiked Ouzel Falls earlier in the year but we had never been to either of these towns.

Looking South from Lake Estes (possibly Long's Peak?)

We started with a stop to the visitors center in Estes Park (more of a potty break) which was actually impressive.  I don't think I've seen a visitor center in CO that big. We saw buses that would shuttle you to the popular hiking areas from the visitor center but we didn't try these.  We didn't stay for too long, just enough time to snap the above picture.

We started driving south on the Peak to Peak Highway (Highway 7 then Highway 72) and pulled over whenever we saw a good view to take pictures, which happened every few miles so this part of the drive took about 2-3 hours.  

I'm not a huge fan of car rides but this was so fun! Driving through the mountains is such a different, beautiful drive (in good weather, I hate mountain driving in bad weather).

We ended in Nederland and drove around to get a feel for the town.  We didn't get out because it had been a long morning.... and we had an OSU game to get back to. We definitely have our priorities right in this house.  

On our way out of Nederland we stopped by the reservoir for our last photo op of the day.  It was so refreshing to see a body of water nearby; it's something we miss so much in CO.  

We thought about grabbing lunch in Nederland but Boulder was on the way back home so we opted for a quick lunch on Pearl Street.  I'll save Boulder for another post though!

Next year's autumn to do list: another drive through the Aspen trees and hopefully a pumpkin patch!