Quaking, Trembling, Golden At Last

As we had mentioned in earlier posts, we have been trying to see Pando, the world’s largest living organism by weight, in its full, fall color for a few years now. We managed to see it this year, and although it was still impressive, it had mostly green leaves with very little fall color. We were hoping to make it back to see it before we left this area. Thankfully, our travels with our friends, Tom and Justine, would take us within 25 miles of it again, so of course, we had to include another visit into our trip. I had checked on it a few days earlier while I was out running errands, and it was close to being the best for color. This would be my third trip, Tom’s second, and Tom and Justine’s first, but who’s counting.

We pulled into the overlook above the valley and we could already see the golden colors of the Aspen trees starting to pop from the hillsides. Fish Lake is visible from here too, and the water only added to the scene. After a few photos, we continued down the hill to Pando itself. The colors were magnificent. Driving through the dispersed camping area, we were among the older trees, who were stubbornly holding on to their green color. But higher up on the hillside is where the show was going on. The younger Aspens that were behind the safety of a fence were exploding in hues of yellow and gold. If you looked closely, many of the leaves had a blush of red, adding to their beauty. Even with partly cloudy skies, there were enough bursts of sunshine and patches of blue to make the white bark and colorful leaves almost glow above us. We walked among the trees, alternating between, admiring the beauty and taking photos. Occasional gusts of wind made the leaves shimmer and quake. The sound of the rustling leaves drowned out the traffic noise from the nearby highway and added to the peaceful feeling of being surrounded by this ancient Trembling Giant. I feel incredibly fortunate to have experienced the transitions from the verdant greens to stunning golds of Pando within a few weeks time. I am really starting to love Aspen trees.

It warmed up nicely after having another cold start to the day. I stayed down under the covers with Cassie & Betty and I am grateful that Tom got up to make coffee, let Suki out, and opened the blinds for the sun to warm the motorhome. We have been looking at options for trading our truck for a lighter vehicle that could be flat-towed. We are now considering a Wrangler as well as the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. Today we are leaning more to the Wrangler, preferably a used Rubicon Unlimited. We also went through many of our pictures from the last couple weeks and got them ready for posting. This area is really starting to fill up with people for the eclipse tomorrow. I am thankful we have had a great spot for the last two weeks and do not have to fight any crowds to get one. Hopefully it will be clear and good for viewing. I tweaked my right knee somehow yesterday, maybe when I slid on my butt down a steep hill. I didn’t notice anything unusual then, but today it is really sore. It may also be from Betty as she insists on sleeping between my knees most nights. Let’s blame her, however she is in there right now warming up my spot, so maybe let’s not. Hopefully it will get better soon. We should sleep well as Tom made a delicious sausage and mushroom pasta tonight. Carbohydrate coma, here we come!

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