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.

This photo was taken from exactly the same location as the photo of the multicolored aspen on “The Dyke”. If you look down from this same location, rather than up, you can see into the aspen stands in many places. If you look through a 500mm lens, you get a for shortened view of the forest that looks very appealing. If you work at it, you can get a photo similar to the one seen above. When I look at it, I keep waiting for the Leprechaun to appear with his pot of gold.

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

Late afternoon on a day with partly cloudy skies. The shot above was taken with the equivalent of a 500mm focal length lens on a 35mm full frame camera.

LENS: 300-600mm on a full frame camera, 200-500mm on a crop sensor camera

FILTER: none needed

Waiting for the Leprechaun ©Miles Hecker CLICK ABOVE IMAGE TO SEE GOOGLE MAP LOCATION
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FILMS	Slide films: Fuji Velvia 100