Aspen Lodgings, De'ah!

The first week of our 'Colorado Trip,' we stayed in Aspen with a family friend, who shall remain nameless for reasons of privacy. After all, not eveyone would want to admit to hosting David and I for that long! Ha! Our hostess could not have been warmer nor more gracious and we are deeply thankful to her. Her generosity granted us more time with my son (he stayed with us, too!) and an extraordinary place to stay. The home is situated on the side of what Aspenites call a 'hill.' In Maine we would call it a mountain. Shows what we know!  In Maine that hump would have the name of a governor or something. In Colorado it does not even get named at all. In the top photo, if you follow the winding road into about the middle of the frame, there is a gray-green, sage colored house. That's where we stayed with the following spectacular views of Aspen and Snowmass to the right. Snowmass village is tucked into the bottom left of the frame on the mountain landscape shots. If you double click on the photos, you'll get a full screen image where you can really see those details. Those mountains were what we woke up to every morning. The Aspen airport is near by and we watched small jets come in and out every night. They were fun to watch and had their own man-made beauty with the lights of the village at night. We could rarely hear them as the mountains seemed to soak up sound. We were frequently struck by the deep quiet. A Mule deer doe and two fawns were regular morning guests and peered into our windows, as if to ask "Are you from Maine?"

 

 Snowmass village to left, double click on image for full screen details

 

'Close-up' view

 Perhaps they were looking at me like that because I was naked. It was the first morning we were there and I was bumbling around in our bedroom trying to find stuff in luggage. If I had taken a bathrobe with me, that's what I would have been wearing when I took these shots, so I guess they qualify as 'Bathrobe Wildlife Photography,' my specialty. I suppose this begs the question "How is it that you could find your camera fast enough but not your underwear?" If you really have to ask, you wouldn't understand the answer.
 

Aspens

ASPENS are as beautiful as everyone told me that they would be. And what greater place to see them in their classic loveliness than in Aspen, Colorado? Magnificent swaths of ‘Colorado Gold’ spill into every valley offset by dark spruce and snow. The most wind sensitive broadleaf in the plant kingdom, they whisper, rustle and quake just as legend has it. The leaves begin to turn from green to shades of amber in September. By October, they are drifting through the air and piling on the ground like sparkling coins. The massive clonal colonies get their starts from single seedlings. The trees above the ground live 40-50 years, but the roots below live for thousands. Each tree is a clone of the rootstock below. For this reason, it's rare to see pink or orange Aspens in the natural world. In Utah, the Pando (‘Trembling Giant‘) Colony is believed to be 80,000 years old, the oldest known living organism on earth. Aspens are indicators of ancient woodlands; they are also climax trees. In forestry, this means the trees that naturally dominate after other trees have died off. Where avalanches plow down mammoth stands of spruce aspens take over. I almost climaxed myself seeing wave after wave of the divine trees. If I had gasped “WOW!” one more time, my jaw might have dislocated.

This is the best part of the road on Hagerman Pass which runs between Leadville and Basalt. It quickly turned to serious off-road ruts and dips. Thank God for the rental Jeep!

Every bend in the road where there was a creek revealed beaver activity. I've never seen so much beaver action in my life! They love the soft wood of the Aspens.

A rare stand of pink Aspens, photo taken on Hagerman Pass looking south 

A Cedar Waxwing in a field of gold