The Best Places to See the Fall Colors in Colorado
This is a writing sample from Scripted writer Josh Wallman
Best Places to See Fall Colors in Colorado
- A View from the Top of the World Looking Down on Creation
From a peak at 12,183 feet at Fall River Pass to its exit at Grand Lake at 8,369 feet, the Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuously paved road in the country. As you drive through 8 miles of 11,000 feet elevation and gaze at aspen trees and colors for as far as you can see, it is the drive of a lifetime.
- The Largest Aspen Grove in North America
At a barely breathable 10,000 feet high, the Kebler Pass will present to you a grove of aspens unlike any other. Fully alive during the fall color season, fields of gold (dandelions) abound with breathtaking views of the Colorado Buttes. Well worth the visit.
- Bring your Oxygen Bottles
At 14,000 feet, and surrounded by the highest peaks in the country, there is the extraordinary San Juan Pass. A 232 mile-long pass through a majestic mountain range of gorgeous scenery and why Coloradans prefer their state to any other. Can you imagine what this drive looks like during the fall color season?
- There is no human description. It is beyond words.
Colors galore, fragrances to die for, and a lifetime experience, the Maroon Bells feature cascades, lakes, golden aspens and the Bells themselves, so-called for their shape. Their color? Well, when the light is right, that will be obvious. Iron deposits account for that. For the naturalist in the room, the Bells are part of the Maroon Formation, which is a 290 million year old sea bed elevated by same tectonic action that created the Rockies. And, yes, feel free to fish in Maroon Lake.
- The Great Western Slope
So named for being on the western side of the Great Continental Divide, the Great Western Slope is a gentle sloping of the Rockies that is also home to the state's wine, peach and cherry country as well. Everyone comes to see the Divide, and then partakes of the vineyards, the incredible views from the elevation, the colors in both the flora and the land, and the incredibly blue sky. And that doesn't include the majesty of seeing the mighty Columbia and Gunnison Rivers join forces at Grand Junction.