Pockets Of Fall Color

The start of the autumn season in Rocky Mountain Natiional Park this year has been slow to get going. A few cold nights and were starting to see some good color showing in pockets. I opted to photograph this small stand of golden aspen trees this morning along Trail Ridge Road at sunrise. I’d expect really good fall color conditions in RMNP by the end of the week into next week. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 24-70mm F4 S lens

Fall color change has been running behind in Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s running so far behind that up until the last few days with few exceptions it was actually difficult finding even small pockets of fall color.

With a few cool nights over the weekend the leaves and color seemed to have picked up steamed and there are now some smaller pockets of decent color to be found in Rocky.

This morning I opted to pass on other locations to photograph this small stand of aspen trees along Trail Ridge Road above Many Parks Curve. It’s certainly not the most impressive stand of aspens in RMNP, but the color of this stand was one pretty nice and the sun was going to rise directly behind these aspen trees. Add in some clouds and I opted to pass on the grand scenics to photograph this small scene.

There are now some nice pockets of color on the west side of Rocky, some decent patches near Hidden Valley along Trail Ridge Road and aspens starting to change over in and around Bear Lake.

At the current pace, I would expect conditions to start to get really nice towards the end of the week into next week. The elk rut is also very active right now as well so although autumn may be a bit behind, the first day of fall today certainly felt every bit the part.