To paint or not to paint. That was the question I was faced with this weekend sitting in a cascade of Aspen leaves falling around me. Have you been out to see the colors yet? WOW! Well, I’ll say they were WOW in certain places. Some places were more like blah. For those of you who live in Western Colorado, where I do, this will be meaningful. For those who don’t live around here, you may have trouble identifying with the locations but…well…ahhh…maybe you could look on the map or google it if you’re really interested. Otherwise, just enjoy the story and I’ll try to post something later for you good folks.

Saturday, wife Kathy and I, took a ride to Durango to get some warranty work done on the Harley. Yes, there is a closer dealer but the Durango dealership is extremely accommodating, but that’s another story. I should give these guys more of a nod than that. They are very interested in going out of their way to accommodate their customers. They are the peak of customer service. The dealer in Missoula, Montana is just as good but they are to far to go to at roughly 850 miles…depending on how you go. Anyway…the ride over Red Mountain was spectacular as you can imagine. In fact down through Silverton, over Molas Pass and Coal Bank Pass was good too, then it started to fizzle.

After we left Durango we decided to come back over Lizard Head Pass for a change of scenery. Pretty much a BLAH! the whole way until we came down the north side of the pass and we got into some more color but by the time we got to Society Turn it was pretty drab again. In fact even over Dallas Divide was dull. Disappointing for sure, but as you know if you’ve been here very long, it can change pretty dramatically within a day or two. In fact I had a customer in today from over in Norwood who said the colors on Dallas Divide were great…so there ya go…48 hours later…just what I was saying.

Sunday we had the choice of staying home and getting caught up on our domestic chores or go up to the Cimarron area and check out the colors there. Well, you can easily guess which choice we made….duh! We rationalized that we can do the chores during the week, so let’s pack a lunch, whistle for the dog and go. And are we glad we did. I’ve already used the word spectacular so let me say they were amazing. No, that’s not strong enough. How about dazzling! That’s better.

There were a number of other choices of places to go and all would’ve been good but I like the Cimarron area for fall aspen color largely because it takes a bit to get up there and isn’t as convenient as other places, therefore less people and I’m all for less people whenever possible. We found a nice quiet spot along the creek down from the bridge under an umbrella of golden fall color and set up our day camp, which consisted of a cooler with our lunch in it, a couple of camp chairs a little folding table a bottle of wine and a couple of beers.

I also had my fly rod and a painting kit. After an wonderfully satisfying lunch, a decision had to be made. Do I do a painting or put a fly on the creek. Let me just say that I took enough photos that day to last a lifetime and decided I can paint in the studio, but it’s hard to fish in there. Here’s a couple of representative shots for you to enjoy.

When I get some of the resulting paintings done I’ll show.

Thanks for stopping by.