I came up with the idea of making a run to Colorado for fall color. Because I wasn’t sure when the leaves would turn or precisely where I figured I’d just wing it. So of course this trip ended up being a comedy of errors including realizing that you need a reservation to visit the Maroon Bells (luckily before I drove there) and getting stranded on the wrong side of 20 miles of construction away from my tent. So at least we know I’m still really bad at just improvising a road trip on the fly.
On the bright side, I’d say I timed the trip very well for the aspens turning golden. The downside of course being that I found it difficult to locate good places I could stop for photos. In that regard Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park came to my rescue (though with not a ton of aspens). When in doubt, a national park will always be good for low-hanging fruit.
So in the end, this is what I was able to salvage:
