In mid-September, I traveled to southwest Colorado with my engineering job for training. Unfortunately, I was two weeks too early for the delayed fall color showing in the San Juan region. (If only I could choose the weeks that I had work training.) While the aspen leaves were green (some were just starting to turn) in the southwest part of the state, I had to make due with other options. One option (regardless of season) was to photograph Black Canyon of the Gunnison, National Park.

Gunnison can be difficult to photograph due to harsh light and deep shadows in the canyon. My photographs started to look good only twenty minutes before a clear sunset that afternoon. I looked for foreground features around the rim at several different overlooks. The yellow flowers helped give color to the scene. The shadows started to soften and the sharp contrast lightened a bit to provide detail in the rocks. Above are my two favorite images of the canyon. In the second one, I did not capture the river and only the top contours of the canyon walls. Still the light was nice and the foreground flowers carry the scene.

In the San Juan region I was a little too early for that lively color to brighten the hillsides. I traveled to Aspen on my way back to Denver in order to fly back home. Independence Pass, being higher in elevation, had aspens just starting to turn.

These trees were shot under twilight and I preferred their truck arrangement scattered in the pictures. Even the route up to the Pass was still very green. Below are two other images taken from the trip. The first was a small stream at Independence Pass. I shot hand held, braced against the rock at about 1/15 a second. The second shot was from the Maroon Bells the next morning, one of many sunrise captures that rewarded me with the yellow mid-ground aspens with nice golden color. I hope to come back in the following years during peak color!