Monday, September 14, 2020

September in the Southern Rockies

An unusual cold front channeled a snow storm down thru the Rockies, across Colorado and into northern New Mexico the week after Labor Day. Decided to delay the drive back to NM for a few days for the roads to dry.

Night time temperatures are now down into the 20's even though the snow is gone.  The aspens will not start turning yellow for a few more weeks, but they are still beautiful trees. Found a nice grove to snap a few photos of the BMW-EZS sidecar rig.








... then came across an aspen forest of young trees. Someone told me that aspens are all connected via roots underground. From the roots a new sucker spouts up, adding another tree to the forest.  Is that true?




Inspite of freezing nighttime temperatures, did venture out for a few more milky way shots. Did not see any shooting stars that were so prominent in August,  but the planets Jupiter and Saturn are still visible.



For the milky way shots, I get away from the lights in the village to avoid any light pollution.  My escape into darkness is the Valley of the Utes (Indian word for Elk). 

Later when I drove back down, the moon had risen. Too bad there wasn't a blanket of snow on the ground to reflect the moon's brightness.  Ah, well in a couple of months that will be the norm. 


Stay safe and healthy my friends

CCjon




4 comments:

  1. 20s! That's much colder than where I was on Hunter Mesa. You must be at a higher altitude than I was at 8000 feet.

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  2. Nighttime lows are bouncing around from 26 to 32 this week. Am at 8420 ft elevation here, where I like to go for the night shots is over 9000 feet.

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  3. I had to go educate myself on Aspen Trees. Fascinating trees! Really really cool facts about them on www.NationalForest.org.
    Those Milky Way pictures are really awesome! I hope you remembered to take your phone this time 😆
    Looking forward to some fall colors blog posts!
    Stay safe and WARM! ❤️

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    1. Thanks for that link, now we both know a lot more about aspens. Not sure I'll see any fall colors this trip, am returning around the 26th or so, have a sidecar rally in East Texas the first weekend of October. Then little A has a birthday in October. They say the peak for fall colors will be the 10th of October, maybe we can get back up here in time for that.

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