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Nederland’s famous Aspen grove

I knew I was getting close.  First one car parked on the side of the road, then another.  Pretty soon both sides of the road, car after car were parked one after another. People holding cameras, holding smart phones were crossing back and forth.  Several tourists lined the shoulder along the west side, gazing out toward the mountains.

Any other time of year, and I would have been sure it was a wildlife jam — moose jam, elk jam, bear jam.  During summer, that would be the only reason for all these cars — thirty or more – parked hither and yon, some of them blocking traffic.

But after living in Nederland for seven years, and knowing the date on the calendar, I knew what this crush of tourists was about — it was the grove, or should I say THE GROVE.  About ten minutes north of Nederland on Highway 72, there is an immense grove of Aspens in a valley to the west.  If you hit it at exactly the peak time of fall, you will witness something so very spectacular, that yes, it will actually cause you to stop your card smack in the middle of the road.

The reason it is so drop dead gorgeous has to do with the way Aspens grow.  Aspen trees actually clone off a parent tree, sending out other Aspen sucker trees for hundreds of feet, or even spanning several acres around the one parent tree.  So in fact, an entire grove of Aspens can actually be one living species connected by their root system, all trees possessing the exact same DNA.

Due to this unique trait, one grove of the same DNA, will turn the exact same color all at the same time, thus producing eye-popping acres of gold, a gold so intense, you can hardly imagine your eyes can take it all in.

That is why I love autumn in the Rockies.  Knowing this week was THE WEEK, I went for a scenic drive up along the Peak to Peak Highway from Allenspark to Nederland.  Curve upon curve brought a “Wow!” from my lips, forcing me to pull over again and again to capture it all via photo.  The oranges, the golds, even a glint of red mixed in with the deep greens and blue-greens of the pines and firs.

The Grove simply capped off my incredibly spectacular day.  Despite the numbers of people lining the road, most of us stood silently, simply taking in this spectacular display of fall at its very best. On this particular day, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.  Autumn in the Rockies — there’s no place better during this time of year….

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