Saturday, September 20, 2014

Looking for the gold Aspen trees in Colorado.

The DragonFly garden is on maintenance mode, September in South Florida is like another summer month.  The weather is hot and rainy, plus is the peak of the hurricane season.  I have a few projects in the planning stages, but I’m waiting for the cooler days of October.  Next month I will by planting the vegetable garden, thinning of my bromeliad collection and planting the winter annuals.  
   

 Today I will bore you with pictures from my vacation to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  Every year around this time, my wife and I, head for the mountains looking for cooler weather and fall colors.  This year the trip was a little early, due to an airline ticket sale.  The weather was not as cold as we wanted (mid 40s at night and high 70s during the day) and the aspen trees were not at peak. (They needed another two weeks)
I fell in love with Colorado 40 years ago when I was in my twenties, single and working for an airline.  Back in those days skiing was my life, today my sixty year old knees can take the pounding of skiing.  I still love this state, and I get as much pleasure hiking the mountain trails and taking pictures of the natural beauty of these mountains as I did skiing.

First stop Snowmass, last weekend they held their annual hot air balloons races.





















We hiked the Maroon Bells in the White River National Forest.



In the town of Aspen we rode the gondola to the top of Aspen Mountain.














We did a five mile hike in the Rio Grande Trail, one of my favorite trails in Aspen.  For those of us oxygen starved flatlanders this is an easy trail to walk.














After the five mile hike we ended with a visit to the John Denver memorial park.  If you ever visit the town of Aspen I recommend that you visit this park.  It is of the most beautiful and well done memorial park that I have ever visited.




Finally found fall colors on the road to the ghost town of Ashcroft.


The last night we stayed in Vail.  I call Vail the Disney World of the mountains, they do a great job planting flowers everywhere.  



We spent time at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden, the world’s highest botanical garden.














The wildflowers of Colorado.