Carved into the Rocky Mountains, the Roaring Fork Valley is home to Aspen, Marble, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs (listed from highest to lowest), and every fall, it looks like someone spilled a treasure chest of gold across the land.
I’m lucky to have family here and I’ll never forget my first experience of autumn. It was a little early for leaf peeping in Glenwood, so I drove up to Marble at 8,000 feet, and the aspen were pulsing in electric yellow, leaves twirling down like dancers auditioning for a snow globe. The twin paintings below were inspired by real trees from here.
Quaking Aspen Magic
Aspen magic is not just the color but also the quaking of the leaves. Because the round leaves have flat stems, they are alive like coins of light, or sequins, catching the slightest breeze and turning it into a dance. The quaking sound is symphonic. It’s worth pausing in silence to take in the music. Indigenous cultures believed aspen had a spiritual connection to the wind.
Aspen is one of nature’s most impressive beings. Each grove connects underground by a single root system. That’s why, on a mountainside, the trees turn gold at the same time—it’s all one tree! The Pando Aspen Clone in Utah, covers over 106 acres and is 80,000 years old—the oldest and largest known organism on Earth.
A Painter’s Paradise
Colorado actually means red in Spanish, but I like it for the word “color”. The air is so devoid of moisture that every color appears wired to 220 V—including that Colorado bluebird sky. The mountains are a tad intense, too. I come home, and Mt. Shasta and Lassen look like pimples on the horizon. It’s quite a blow!
Colorado leaf peeping season is worth your bucket list. Here’s a wonderful resource. Make sure you have sunglasses and electrolytes. Canned oxygen is pretty nice, too—the local Bud Lite.
Nature on the Brain
Viewing art inspired by nature lights up the same brain regions as actually being outdoors (Jiawei Lin, 2020) . So if you can’t make it to the Rockies this season, enjoy the next best thing below—no hiking boots required.
(left image) Aspen Inspiration II, 48 x 24 in, 2024, oil on canvas by Lauren Forcella; (right image) Aspen Inspiration I, 48 x 24 in, 2024, oil on canvas by Lauren Forcella
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Thank you for reading. I warmly invite you to browse
Prints of Aspen Inspiration II
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