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County Road 12 is a well graded gravel road that starts on Colorado Highway 133 near Paonia Reservoir. It ascends to an altitude of about 10,000 feet at the top of Kebler Pass, before eventually dropping back down to the town of Crested Butte. It is home to one of the largest living organisms on the planet,the Kebler Pass aspen grove.

About 20 miles in from Paonia Reservoir or about 0.5 miles past the Horse Ranch Park turnoff is one of my favorite stands of Aspen on all of Kebler Pass. The trees are tall, healthy and widely spaced. Walking amongst them at mid day and looking skyward is inspirational. The picture seen above was taken in this area.

The best color for this location normally occurs in the last week of September.

Late morning on a day with clear skies. The shot above was taken with the equivalent of a 17mm focal length lens on a 35mm full frame camera.

LENS: 17-35 mm on a full frame camera, 10-20mm on a crop sensor camera

FILTER: none needed

 

Aspen Canopy

The Sky’s the Limit
©Miles Hecker

CLICK ABOVE IMAGE TO SEE GOOGLE MAP LOCATION

SEASONS

TIMES

LENS & FILTERS

FILMS

Slide films: Fuji Velvia 100

 

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