The Labor Day weekend is a bittersweet time where I live, especially the Monday holiday. It is unofficial end of summer and the highway through town will be jammed with cars and pickups pulling camper trailers. Thousands will stream out of the mountains to head back to their homes in the cities and plains of the Midwestern states to start school and go back to their jobs. It will be a good day to avoid the highways and byways and to just stay home and get things done around the house.
The mountains will become quiet and a peaceful cool will settle in as autumn sets in. This is my favorite time of year for photography as the aspen trees change and the mountains take on their mantle of gold before becoming covered in winter’s blanket of white. Fall is my favorite time in the mountains. The storms of summer will come to an end and the days will be filled with beautiful late summer sunshine providing excellent lighting for landscape photography. I like to get out during the week to enjoy the solitude of the workweek when even the weekenders are absent from my favorite places.
I also look forward to participating in many of autumns great events. This year I plan to attend Oktoberfest in Woodland Park and we are going to have our own ultra marathon in the Pike National Forest not too far north of town. And I am already looking forward to my annual hike up the Crystal Falls Trail to Crystal Reservoir to see the colors on the big Peak.
Today however, winter and snow are on my mind and on this crazy day on the roadways I will stay home and make preparations for the inevitable onslaught of white.
