Golden October in Crested Butte

I walked among the quaking aspens in Crested Butte, Colorado, where leaves whispered around me.

At 9,000 feet, the aspens in the Crested Butte area had just hit their grandest golds.

My daughter Courtney’s dog, Lady, scouted around for trespassers — deer, squirrels, and notorious chipmunks — and found a vantage point. She played lookout for a while.

Although Colorado’s indigenous trees are usually limited to golden hues, the aspens grow plentiful in higher elevations and contrast with the blue sky vistas. Their unique trunks sway in the wind.

Leaves flitted and fluttered over my head in a graceful ballet.

Click for the dancing leaves! It’s pretty spectacular.

All at once, a violent wind interrupted the peaceful glade and stomped around in bluster. It shook the trees and shouted in an angry blast that swept the leaves into the air. They showered down like rain.

Click to see this tremulous leaf storm while Nat King Cole serenades.

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A post shared by Susie Lindau (@susie_lindau)

As quickly as the wind burst arrived, it coughed and spluttered, then slammed the door, its damage done, the branches all stripped bare. Other nearby aspens sighed in relief, their leaves intact to quake for another day.

Down in Boulder County’s lower elevation, the leaves are beginning to shrug off their coats of verdant green. The heads and shoulders of these wildly varied trees reveal tinges of reds and russets, vibrant oranges, and golds.

It’s time for another walk.

Do you love autumn — the colors and the scent of falling leaves? What do you like best about the season?