In 2020, my wife and I had planned to visit New Mexico in the fall to see the national parks and other scenic areas, plus attend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. That fell apart with COVID-19. This year, we made it to New Mexico in the spring, but that did not cover the balloons. We returned last month to go to the Fiesta with her sisters.

Having gone that far, I did not want to just come back home right away. It seemed a good idea to me that we stay on for another week or more to visit the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, with the bonus that it would be fall color season. We got lucky that our timing turned out to be pretty close to the peak. After two days in Telluride, we had a 3 day rental of a log cabin in Ridgeway.

On one of those days we drove over to an area called the Mt. Wilson Mesa. We spent the morning driving around the roads there looking for good views. One of them was in this spot where the trees towered over the road with backlit color.
Our trip continued to Ouray, Aspen, and Great Sand Dunes, but this was one of my favorite shots.