Colorado Autumn Color Road Trip

Photograph of autumn color on Kebler Pass, Colorado.
East Beckwith Mountain on Kebler Pass near Crested Butte, Colorado.

After a two year hiatus, I returned to the Colorado Rocky Mountains for autumn photography this year. Traveling with two friends, we visited a number of locations including a tire repair shop and a Toyota dealer.

The original plan was to photograph fall foliage on Grand Mesa. The plans changed on the first day after arriving on the mesa. Autumn color was far behind schedule and the south half of Grand Mesa was looking green and sick. We quickly made a group decision to ditch Grand Mesa and move our efforts to Crested Butte. Heading north on highway 133, we encountered a road closed for repairs and alternating traffic. When it was our turn to move through the construction zone, we discovered a flat tire and all progress came to a halt. After about 30 minutes of changing the tire on a narrow mountain road, we discovered the cause of deflated tire and expectations. A large hunk of aluminum debris was firmly embedded into the tire. On went the doughnut spare and we limped to Montrose, CO and were sidelined until the next morning, when we found a Discount Tire shop. A little time lost, a lot of frustration, we finally turned our attention to making photographs. Next stop, The Million Dollar Highway outside of Ouray, CO.. Crested Butte was put on hold.

We were not going to be deterred.

We hit the Million Dollar Highway and boy, the color was perfect. Next we headed for Owl Creek Pass. Things were looking great until the car had a check engine alarm as we approached the summit. Not a good spot to have a car problem. But, the engine was running fine. Not wanting to take any chances, we turned around and drove back to Montrose, arriving at the Toyota dealer 30 minutes before closing. The tech at the dealer checked the alarm codes and reset the alarm. The car seemed fine at that point, but being on the road and driving around in the middle of nowhere, we decided to spend the night and arranged a more thorough examination at 10am the next morning. Turns out, there was a loose coil wire. Nothing major. We did lose a little photography time though.

Once the car was released by the dealer, we headed to Crested Butte in hope of salvaging some of the trip. It worked out just fine though. We ended up spending a couple of days of photography on Kebler Pass and ultimately we all felt happy with what we were able to do. The car problems were just speed bumps that we worked through without a lot of additional complications.

Early autumn at Lost Lake on Kebler Pass near Crested Butte.

As for me, I ended up with quite a few nice photos and was able to add some decent landscape photographs to my stock photography catalog.

Another trip in the books with two good friends and a few new stories to tell. What more could an old man ask for?