The Tanager Blog

Fall in the Rockies…Don’t blink, you’ll miss it. One cold night and all the aspens go gold and red. One windy day and they’re empty skeletons. Fortunately for me, Hailey and six of our closest friends, this past weekend was a case of perfect timing. Above, we have Tim and Lexi Lamberton (left and center) tossing leaves into the air with Jenny Jordan (right) at the Dry Lake Campground near Steamboat Springs. Also along for the fun were Shannon and Stu Kilzer and Jenny’s husband, Matt. Mostly the same group as the Grand Lake trip from a few weeks ago.

As you can see, there was much jubilation.

The route to Steamboat Springs is always an enjoyable drive. Coming home: not so much, but I’ll get to that in a later blog post. Up I-70 to Georgetown we could start to see the first veins of gold, winding courses of quaking aspen, hugging the gulches. Into Summit County, the epicenter of the pine beetle epidemic here in Colorado. I’d say at this point, roughly 70% of the pines are dead…either gray gnarly skeletons of their former selves, or sickly red-needled towers waiting to be torched. Fifty weeks of the year, it’s one of the saddest sights in America…but this weekend, the aspens and their blazing gold and rusty leaves overwhelmed the beetle kill. I hardly even noticed the dead trees that are everywhere.

From Silverthorne, the route descends the Blue River to the Colorado River at Kremmling, weaves through sage-brush hills and Middle Park and then passes over Muddy and Rabbit Ears Passes before a spectacular descent into the Yampa River Valley and Steamboat Springs. Just shy of Muddy Pass, the aspens return, all of them in full fledged fall folliage (say-that-three-times-really-fast-I-dare-you). Cresting Rabbit Ears, the willows and their tiny red leaves take over. It is a landscape of rust and copper colors. A bull moose wandered through the willows … something we only caught a quick glimpse of at 50 mph. A U-turn and a frantic drive back to the spot and he was gone.

Above-left is Fish Creek Falls, a short, easy and popular hike (translation: a frustrating hike for Matt) just northeast of Steamboat Springs. We checked it out, wandered downtown, found a great bookstore/cafe (Off the Beaten Path Books) and then spent the late afternoon and early evening driving up to Buffalo Pass, where all the rest of these images were taken.

Aspens and pines (alive ones!) at the Dry Lake Campground.

Stu and Shannon walking back to the car at Dry Lake Campground. Click on the photo and you may be able to see Shannon sticking her tongue out at me.

Ahhh, to retire as a National Forest Service Campground host. Perhaps in another life, but there is definitely an appeal to being the guy who chops wood all day, chats with outdoorsy types, sleeps in a camper under the stars and cleans out the outhouse——never mind. What a lousy job.

Those are seedpods of wildflowers and red willows along the road side in the late evening light.

And then we decided to have a little fun with the fish-eye lens.

Yes, it is quite funny how covered in leaves and dirt I was.

Back on the road, the aspens only got thicker and deeper in color. Coming later this week…parts 2 and 3 of the Steamboat weekend.