This whole tree color changing process is marvelous to behold. You spend your time in the warm summer months watching the different shades of green appear and it seems endless. Every day is another day of perfection. Then like all remarkable things it cannot last indefinitely, even if you want it to, and the change begins.

Such are the ways of these aspen. As the days shorten and the cold returns they have no choice but to begin their metamorphosis in preparation for the long sleep awaiting them over the dark winter months.

Sometimes Nature hurries the process and send howling winds and cold rain or even a heavy snow storm to shake the trees and loose the leaves from their twigs and branches, sending them sailing off to their final resting places to become one with the forest again.

Other times the process is drawn out and takes days or even a few weeks to remove all the leaves and send the trees to sleep. That is what is happening here high in the mountains of Colorado. A series of mild snow storms gently fall on the forest and melt only to reoccur again over and over until the combination of cold and darkness and time completes the final preparations for winter.

While this is happening you as an interested participant get to watch the slow transformation and marvel at the beauty that Nature can create with the simplest of methods. This is transition and it’s happening right now in the high country.