Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures of yellow leaves. That’s what we went to Colorado in autumn for, and that’s what we got. So that’s what you get too :-). As the Lightning Seeds would say “oh Lucky You”.
Gotta first just give a shout out to being back in Frisco. Feels almost like a second home. Nice to be back.
Walking through the residential streets of Frisco, I couldn’t quite banish the Lloyd Grossman voice in my head… “Who lives in a house like this?”
Very envious.
Not such a bad place to ‘live’ either.
(grey building a block behind the BC)
Our campsite gave us some of the best views over the Dillon reservoir towards Frisco. Being back on the mountain time zone meant our work start time was reverted to 9am, so we could appreciate the nature around us before heading into the office.
I just couldn’t wait to get into the midst of trees to be within and amongst the golden loveliness, rather than viewing from afar.
This is Frisco.
I don’t recall getting quite so excited about seeing trees change color when we lived in the UK. But the more you become accustomed to the gradual merging of seasons in the Santa Clarita Valley, the more you appreciate the stark diversity of a waning summer and a waxing autumn when you get to see it in person. The beauty of nature becomes all the more wondrous as you realize you have less time to appreciate it!
That said, my oohs and ahh’s were far exceeding Darren’s and he was becoming impatient with our inability to make any progress on our walks without me stopping incessantly to take pictures. I eventually realized the difference between what he thought was awesome and I thought was ‘out of this world absolute best thing I’ve ever seen’: Magic Glasses. Yes really.
So I’d recently acquired a new pair of prescription sunglasses, and on a whim I’d switched from a grey/black tint to a brown/yellow one. Amazing as the autumn leaves are, when you put the Magic Glasses on, it introduces a whole new dimension.
Rest assured, more trees to come. But our two weeks in Frisco was more, much more than that. For starters, there were breweries and there were sausages.
And then there was the time spent on our new found friend’s boat. We were generously invited to join him for a soirée on the Dillon reservoir. Complete with awesome views, a real good vibe, and meat and cheese. Which I woefully neglected to get a picture of but rest assured was good.
Not the woolly hat though, that stayed put.
We loved the boat experience so much, we went back again the next day. Unfortunately, the wind had other ideas. So much so that we just hung out in the marina. Hard life.
Bobble on the hat provided extra heat.
Did NOT find a bottle opener on the boat 🙁
Bring on Aaron’s shoe bottle opening skills, job done.
Back to trees. I’m gonna put it out there: my favorite tree is the Aspen. Can you even have a favorite tree? (surely only as weird as a favorite color and most people have one of those?). In Summer, aspens are resplendent with bright green spade shaped leaves. They don’t have long to blow their trumpets so they’ve worked out a way to wave their leaves on their branches like a coquettish Jessica Rabbit fluttering her eyelashes. “Look at me, look at me”.
It’s when the air turns crisp, the days become short, and pumpkin spice appears in everything from lattes to cream cheese that the aspens really come into their own. With the chance to experience this phenomenon first hand (complete with Magic Glasses), I was like a kid in a sweet shop. As I googled “best fall colors” I realized there’s even an official term for my new obsession: Leaf-peeping! So leaf-peep we did.
But it’s a fine line when it comes to timing for the best leaf-peeping. While the trees lining the residential streets of Frisco were still turning from green to yellow to gold, the clusters at higher elevations were already starting to look bare, their coats of many colors lying discarded on the forest floor. Well you know what that means… time to move on.
And still my favorite tree.