Fall Colors

The 3rd week of September - usually peak week for the aspens - and our fall trip had been on the calendar for months!  We left early Monday morning with the 5th wheel and ATV and headed over to Snowblind Campground which is at the base of Monarch Pass.  By staying there, we could do both the Sargents area and the Pitkin area!

It was kind of nice to have a fire pit and a picnic table - we don't usually camp in campgrounds but this one is a Nat'l Forest one and the only other people there were the host and 2 sets of hunters!

Glenn has rigged up a solar panel for the 5th wheel which is really nice - with all our sun, the panel can recharge the batteries during the day!

After setting up in the campground, we headed up Old Monarch Pass - there weren't a lot of colors up that way but it was a fun drive as I had never been on that road!

We woke up to 26 degree weather on Tuesday!!  YIKES - turn that furnace on!!  We dressed warmly and I had 6 layers on my upper body - I was STILL chilly at times riding that ATV!!  But it was all worth it because we found the aspens!!

We did Black Sage Pass and then over to Pitkin!  And were excited to drive through a campground that we THOUGHT didn't have spaces big enough for us - turns out they have a LOT of drive through spaces which will be perfect for us next year!

 Although we were about a week early for peak aspens this year, there was still plenty of color to see!

I love the fact that the road crew didn't cut down this aspen but made the road around it!

As usual, I couldn't stop taking pictures!  The aspens have me hooked this time of year!

Wednesday morning we also woke up to the cold - because we were down in a valley, it took the sun a while to get up over the mountain!  We asked the camp ground host if we could keep the 5th wheel there longer than the normal checkout and he said it was no problem!  We trailered the ATV over to Sargents and went down some of my favorite trails of aspens!!  GORGEOUS!!

To Be Cont'd......................