Aspen tree excursion

Monday Fran and I headed out after the morning rush had quieted down to look for local fields of gold. Aspen, that is. We'd heard that the trees are at their height of color in the northern and central mountains. Rather than poking around the local, i.e., 30 mile away sites, we headed out US 285 towards Como.

Hillside near Kenosha Pass

We saw several nice patches between Conifer and Grant, but when we hit the park before the top of Kenosha Pass (10,001 feet) whole hillsides lit up with yellow. I bypassed the scenic turnout just to the west of the pass from which you have a spectacular view of South Park (yes, it's a real place), a huge flat space surrounded by aspen covered mountains.

View from Boreas Pass road, Como in the distance

We drove through Como, where my granddad taught school for a year, and headed towards Boreas Pass. I was told some 30 years ago that it is one of the primo aspen viewing roads. This was my second trip along the road (the first was on a bike in a steady summer rain). This area certainly lives up to my informant's claim.

DSP&P section house at Boread Pass summit

We stopped at the summit (11,482 feet) to check out the old Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad section house and outbuildings. During the summer months there is a National Forest ranger there to provide information about the site's history and the land around it. It would be a good thing if one were also present during the aspen season. The lot was full of cars with only informational signs to explain things. We had lunch there, picked up at a deli in Conifer, before heading down towards Breckenridge, one of our well thought of ski areas.



We turned on US 9 towards Frisco and were amazed - shocked, really - at the amount of growth in the area since we stopped camping in the early '90s. Along this road there weren't many aspen. But there sure were a lot of brown lodge pole pines. Around Lake Dillon, the pine forest is being more than decimated by the pine bark beetle. Many trees have gone past brown due to needle loss. It's truly a sad sight.

Our campgrounds is in there, someplace

We took a turn off US 9 to head towards Keystone (another ski area) going over Swan Mountain. At the top of the grade there is a parking lot for (I think) Panoramic Point, a shortish loop walk giving views of Frisco, Silverthorn and Dillon, and, of course, Lake Dillon. From one vantage point you could see the location of the campground we favored. It was closed prior to this year's camping season, along with all the others around Lake Dillon, due to the danger of falling beetle-killed trees.

View from Loveland Pass

We drove past Keystone and, just a few miles up the road, Arapahoe Basin. Shredders love the latter, mostly due to price. We topped Loveland Pass (11,992 feet), dropped past Loveland Valley Ski Area and headed home. Of course, we just had to hit Denver as the evening rush was ramping up. Even with that, we got home in a timely fashion. We clocked in 204 miles on the truck's odometer for the day. Three passes, two continental divide crossings, and lots of aspen. A nice day trip, if a little rushed. More pictures from the drive are now up on Shutterfly.