More Great Autumn shots in Colorado

The last two days in the Colorado Rockies have been more of the same...fabulous!!  The area around Monarch Pass is especially flamboyant...as this shot shows.

The Lizards visited yet another major American river...the Arkansas.  Colorado is an unusual state where rivers are concerned.  There are no large, navigable rivers in the state, but there are several famous streams...the catch is that they all begin in Colorado and are thus small here, while becoming larger downstream.  The Colorado, Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Platte all start here and attain more major status downstream.

The mountainsides near Monarch are downright luminous!

Here's the sign at Monarch Pass...higher than the summit of Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest peak.

Our saurian vagabonds have now landed at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  This gorge is not nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon...about 2000 feet on average...but it is more precipitous.  In places it's barely a quarter mile wide.  The dark rock adds to a sense of foreboding.

The fissured rock at the Black Canyon has been penetrated by flows of other material, creating these seams.

Lightning caused fires have ravaged the P-J landscape at Black Canyon.  The gnarly dead trees add to the surreal vibe here.  The first time I visited was in the 1980s.  I camped on the north rim of the canyon, under a full moon.  An owl serenaded me all night long.  It was cool and more than a little mystical.

Monday night I stayed in Ouray.  Though I lived in the Denver area for 12 years, I only visited here once, then only briefly.  Hard to think of a town anywhere in a better setting.  I'll have to come back for several days.  For that matter, it's not all that far from Monterey either.

I had never been over the famed highway between Ouray and Silverton...till today.  The terrain in Southwestern Colorado just seems to be more dramatic than in the rest of the state, and that's saying something!  The mountains here are steeper, the valleys deeper.  And the fall colors are astounding!  I was one of the few casual photographers here...most of the folks had big SLRs and tripods. 

This could be an impressionist painting.

The Glory of Autumn in the Colorado Rockies!

I have been privileged to spend the last three days in the Colorado Rockies under absolutely perfect conditions!  Crystalline air; warm, intense sun; cool, refreshing breezes; and aspen near the peak of fall color.  It has been absolutely glorious.  I did make a bit of an error here, though; I was at Hidden Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park, and walked out of a corridor between buildings.  I didn't look to my right immediately, but when I did, here was this big ol' bull elk!  Several minutes earlier, he had been feeding in a ravine 20-30 yards away.  Fortunately, he was mellow...used to the tourons, I reckon.  You really should not get this close to a bull elk (this is not a zoom shot!) and I would not have if I had known he was in this spot.  But bruddah Elk was cool about the whole thing.

The aspen will probably be at their peak around September 27-30, but on the 23rd there was plenty of blazing color.

Most aspen leaves turn yellow in fall, but some go red...they are prized.  Here's a macro shot of some red aspen.  I love how the red coloring reveals the intricate veins in the leaves. 

Here the Lizards continue their tour of America's great rivers.  Our saurian travelers have already visited the Columbia, Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri on this trip.  Now they're hangin' at the Colorado, near its headwaters at Grand Lake in the Rockies.

Mount Sherman, framed by aspens.  About a week earlier, the first snow of the season fell; on the north facing slopes, it hasn't melted, and probably won't before winter sets in for good.

The deep blue skies at two miles above sea level, combined with the blazing golden aspen, always make a stunning color contrast.

I have endless possibilities for color, shading, and light when the aspen are turning.  For a photographer it's like being a kid in a candy store!  You could take thousands of excellent pics in a few days here.  Really, it's breathtaking.

Yesterday my friend Cindy and I did a loop trip from Breckenridge, over  Boreas Pass, and back over Guanella Pass.  Exactly 100 miles.  Cindy enjoys the stunning contrast between the dark green hues of the evergreens (mostly englemann spruce and alpine fir) and the brilliant golds of the aspen.  This shot, near Guanella Pass, is a fine example.

Here's another one.  The brilliant colors and the sublime scenery rendered the Venerable Pinniped euphoric!  A guy we talked to here felt the same way.  Such a day makes it wonderful to be alive!  Being Saturday, it was fairly crowded, and no wonder, with this scenery.  But everyone was in a good mood...we shared our enjoyment with each other.

It's good not to overlook the forest floor.  This is a typical scene, worthy of a still life composition by a Dutch Master.  Weathered wood, waving grass, shrubs in fall color, subtle differences in lighting.  By the way, have you guessed that my favorite painters are the French Impressionists?

High Plains Drifting

Yesterday, I drove across the High Plains from Goodland, KS to Denver.  Though I'd passed through Goodland several times, I''d never really had a look around, so this time I did.  Goodland does have a skyline; here it is.

There's even a NWS forecast office in Goodland.  It's in an uncongested area. 

Downtown Goodland turns out to be rather cool.  The streets are paved with red brick, adding a retro vibe to the scene.

And talk about retro chic!  The telephone building, constructed in 1931, is an Art Deco classic.  Who knew??

This is one of the few remnants of virgin shortgrass prairie in Colorado, in Bonny Lake State Park. 

The roads of the high plains stretch to the horizon.  I loved the sense of openness and vastness I felt when driving across the prairies. 

This observation tower in Genoa, Colorado has been around since 1926.  It's kind of a rundown, touron schlock place.  It is claimed you can see six states from the top.  I don't know about that, but you do get your first good look at Pikes Peak from here.  After driving westward for a week, that scene was significant.

Midwest Backroads

I've been heading west the past few days, through several midwestern states from Indiana to Kansas.  Though I've taken I-70 part of the way, I also like to get off the freeway and take the backroads.  It's slower, but I have the time; it's more relaxing...few trucks or tailgaters; and you see more.  This is the longest covered bridge in the United States, near Medora in south central Indiana.  It's 438 feet long and has three interior spans.

The bridge is equally attractive from inside.  The structure dates from 1875.  The beautiful roof timbers are mostly new, but the thick pieces of wood that make up the spans and other interior supports are mainly original.

Brown County State Park is an oasis of lush forest in the middle of Indiana.  In October, it's one of the nation's best spots for fall color.  I was several weeks early for the show, but the forest floor still presents a fine mosaic of color and form.

This covered bridge near Greenup, Illinois is new!  It was built in 2000.  There was a CB on this site in the mid 1800s but it was torn down and replaced by a steel truss structure before 1900.  That in turn was pulled down long ago, and the locals decided to resurrect the original structure...with modern engineering.

Bolstered by a couple chilly nights, the first isolated signs of color are popping up in Illinois.

The Gasconade county courthouse in Hermann MO was built around 1900.

Hermann has many fine Victorian structures.  The town was settled by German immigrants in 1836, and retains a strong Teutonic influence.  It appears that the main activities are eating delicious food...emphasizing bratwurst; drinking good locally  grown wine; and having festivals with oompah bands, singing, dancing, eating, and drinking.  Sounds like a good lifestyle to me!

The Lizards are now hangin' at the Missouri River...at Portland, Missouri, no less!  They've had a fine tour of the great rivers of the US on this trip.

Vegetation on the banks of the Missouri...in Missouri...is lush, to say the least.

I did three strolls on the Katy Trail.  The Katy runs for 238 miles through Missouri along an old railbed that was abandoned in 1986.  By 1990 the first sections of the trail were completed.  It's still expanding and will soon reach all the way to the Mississippi.  This stretch of trail, between limestone bluffs on the right and the Missouri River to the left, is in the central part of the state near the town of Portland, between Jefferson City and Hermann.  You can bike, run, or hike the trail...and some of the western part is open to horseback riding.  At times in the winter the trail offers cross country skiing.

Now I'm on the Konza Prairie in Kansas, near Manhattan.  This is original tallgrass prairie, mostly never plowed, that is a Nature Conservancy preserve.  Buffalo have been returned to this, their natural habitat, and scientists come from all over the world to study the prairie ecosystem.  While not as spectacular as towering mountains or dramatic coastline, the prairie is equally diverse, biologically speaking.

A typical Kansas rural skyline. 

Edmond, Kansas; a typical hamlet, moribund but mellow.  Probably too mellow for most of us if we lived here full time.  4 PM Sunday afternoon and no sign of life.

Beautiful Southern Ohio

A couple days ago I drove across southern Ohio...for the first time.  It was rolling country, with forests and meadows, towns and farms.  The overall impression I had was of beauty, tranquility, and a peaceful way of life, slow paced.  Cincinnati of course is busier, but still not all that hectic.  This is old country by American standards; many cities and towns have been settled for over two hundred years.  Even the vestiges of the bygone industrial era have symmetry and grace.

Here, the Lizards are at the Ohio River.  This is the third of American's major rivers they've seen on this trip...the Columbia, Mississippi, and Ohio.  Indeed, one could argue that those are THE three main rivers of the US, as far as transportation and commerce are concerned.

I was kickin' at a pleasant rest area on the river, when a sternwheeler and an old tug passed each other.  I was transported back about a century in time.

Ohio has its share of covered bridges.  A few miles inland from the big river, the Rinard Bridge spans a small stream.  This bridge was destroyed during floods about a decade ago, since rebuilt.

The Hune Bridge spans the Little Muskingum, running fitfully in mid September.  Overall it's been a wet year in these parts, but the last few weeks have been fairly dry.  The bridge dates to 1879.

Cedar Falls, in Hocking Hills State Park.

The Lizards are connecting with their spiritual ancestors, as portrayed in the Serpent Mound.  This Indian memorial was constructed about 900 years ago.

I eventually arrived in Cincinnati.  It's a pleasant city with a fine skyline.  Good zoo too...I'll make a critter post later.

This is the John Roebling Bridge, spanning the Ohio between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky.  The remarkable thing about this bridge is its age...it was finished in 1866! And it's still heavily used, by pedestrian and vehicle traffic.  I walked across it.  I just finished a fine book by David McCullough, The Great Bridge, on the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was designed by the same man who designed and built  this one, John Roebling, and the bridges in Cincinnati and Brooklyn are very similar in their construction...the one in Cincy was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was constructed...the Brooklyn Bridge surpassed it 17 years later.  Roebling died shortly after construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1869, and his son, Washington, built that span.

The new home of the Reds, Great American Ballpark, is adjacent to the insurance company of the same name, which is housed in the most distinctive skyscraper in the Queen City's skyline.

Night action at the ballpark.  Reds have the bases loaded here.  However, Jay Bruce hit into a double play, killing the rally.  The Reds won anyway, 2-1.