Color Contrasts

Autumn beneath The Maroon Bells of the Elk Mountains in Colorado.

I was born, raised and employed in the Upper Midwest, educated in New England, and had two brief residences in Colorado; so I’ve heard boasts from the best about autumn color.

There’s no question that the Upper Midwest provides autumn leaves in greater varieties of color, and New England multiplies that magnificence with greater elevations for viewing, but – for last week at least – Colorado wins the debate.

Yes, aspen trees dominate the Colorado landscape, so yellow dominates the fall foliage palette; but do you know how many shades of yellow actually exist? And how aspens glow as they grow among majestic pines? And how awesome it is to see a glorious golden wave of autumn aspen cascading down a rugged, snow-dusted mountain peak of 10- or 12- or 14,000 feet? The whole drama framed by red-rock outcroppings, with a brilliant blue-sky backdrop?

There’s an argument about the grandest stand of aspen in all the world. The Pando Aspen Tree (or Spread) in Fishlake National Forest near Richfield, Utah is claimed to be the largest aspen clone, that is, one stand which radiates from a single seed and has a common root system. This clone extends over more than 100 acres and consists of more than 40,000 trees, some of which are more than 130 years old.

Perhaps it is a distinction without a significant difference, but it is in West Central Colorado where the world’s largest collection of contiguous aspen groves is located. The centerpiece is Kebler Pass, part of the Sawatch Range in Gunnison County. This too is reported to be a single living organism descending from a single seed. Kebler’s “little brother” to the south is The Castles, best viewed from Ohio Pass. Then there’s West Elk Loop, as well as both Brush Creek and Washington Gulch near Crested Butte. Together this fab-five fall collection is so massive that local guides claim without dispute that satellites can identify this “yellow dot” as they circle the earth in space during North America’s autumn.

For a moment on Kebler Pass – among the unsurpassable beauty of that place — it was possible to forget that so much of our world is not ablaze in autumn color, but on fire from wars and wildfires. A place where it was actually possible to sense what fresh air feels like and to hear what silence sounds like.

JER