Odyssey 2018 - The Burtons are at it again...: Sep 13 - Parted Company with the Forest Service

I guess there are those of you that have lived in or visited Colorado more than Lizzy and I, but this color change thing is most upsetting. The Forest Service called again and asked us to do a bit more research - something about drought and its affect on the trees around here. Well...of course...we're always up for a good outing in Jethro; so we agreed. BOY...was that ever a mistake!! Here's the low down:

First we gassed up the mighty beast and headed straight for Buffalo Pass. That's where this color phenomenon was most prolific just two days ago. Holy smokes...the change in just two days was frightening! I mean, if the rough road to the top of the pass wasn't bad enough, next you have to throw in all those ridiculous, vivid colors. It was enough to give us headaches. Why...we couldn't even concentrate on the road because the colors were so bright. Liz kept screaming "Look...look...look over there...look up there!!" It was terribly distracting. Besides that, I was afraid that my camera was going to go up in flames from all the hot, hot colorful images it was subjected to.

Finally, completely exhausted, we gave up and decided this color research was just too much for an old couple like us. We put the camera in the igloo cooler hoping it might survive the heated exposure overload and headed down the mountain. We marched into the Forest Service station and announced that they needed to find someone else that could handle the intensity of their flora problem. It was just too intense for us.

So now, back home, and after taking cold showers and trying to calm down a bit, I'm passing along the evidence of our sensory overexposure. I don't know how you current and former residents of Colorado can handle this latent luminosity event especially of it recurs on a regular basis.

Get back Jack...and click the pic if you dare :o

This is exactly what I'm talking about. You can't be subjected to this without getting a headache.

Fortunately, Jethro remained oblivious to all of the hideous colors surrounding him. He's so cool and understated like that.

No matter which road you took...

...or which direction you looked...

...there was just no escaping this crazy, color catastrophe!

Much of the time we were in the mountains the day was completely cloudless. Yes, there are a few pictures taken two days ago that snuck in; and there were a few clouds that day, but...

...here's where I was going. I've snapped a lot of photos in my day and used a lot of cameras, lenses and filters. Today's snaps were unique in that I was trying to turn down the saturation and intensity of the colors. Seriously...the blue of the sky in most of the photos was almost as absurd as the goofy oranges and yellows that prevailed in almost every image. I promise you, folks, ain't no color enhancement going on here today. Like I say...it was enough to give you a headache.

Thank goodness for evergreens. If it weren't for them, the whole place would be ablaze.

Hang in there you two green guys...don't let the deciduous dummies dismay you.

I mean really...enough is enough!

Even after Lizzy and I had given up the ghost and started our descent, we got bombarded. We were both wearing our sunglasses wishing we had "orange and yellow blockers" instead of "blue blockers."

Then we turned a corner and OMG!!!

We literally thought the woods were on fire. We grabbed our cell phones...

...before we realized it was just the silly leaves pretending to be on fire!

Well, I'm sure by now you can understand what we went through today, so I'll spare you any more dramatic commentary. I guess if you don't believe me or at least understand, you can just jump in your car and head on up here to the mountains in and around Steamboat and see for yourself. From what they tell us at the Forest Service, however, you'd better hurry. Seems whenever there's dry or drought conditions, these crazy leaves not only change like "almost overnight," but they will drop off quickly as well. We experienced some of that today as well. Trees that were bright yellow on September 11, were almost bare today. There was a high wind and we watched leaves blowing off many of the poor, yellow fellows.