Montrose & Ridgway, CO (10/22/2019)

This has been a crazy year for Fall color in Southwest Colorado.  A late Spring, dry Summer and early Winter seemed to conspire to confuse the Fall season.  It didn't ruin Fall color, there was plenty of that, but it started late and, for the aspens at least, ended early.  Fortunately, other trees also provide nice color and they typically come after the aspens and last longer.  These were the targets of my latest outing.

Billy Creek State Wildlife Area, about twelve miles south of Montrose, is primarily for hunting deer and elk, but there are also numerous cottonwoods and willows to provide good color.  The Uncompahgre River runs through it to encourage and support such trees.  Several ponds are also found in the reserve.

Farther south, smoke from the Cow Creek Wildfire mixed with early morning clouds to present an eerie image over Cimarron Ridge.  This fire has been burning for several weeks, forcing closure of roads into the Uncompahgre National Forest.  I started up County Road 8 to get a better view of the "smoky" mountains.  Along the way I saw several photo ops, including a nice ranch sitting in the valley.

One of our adobe hills appealed to me with the golden cottonwoods in the foreground.

There were more good views of the ridge above the wildfire, particularly Chimney Rock and Courthouse Mountain. 

Several impressive ranches are scattered around these mountains, including Stealey Mountain Ranch that happens to be for sale.  I didn't get a look at its ranch house from the road, only the visitor's entry gate.  However, there is a nice YouTube presentation at Stealey Mountain Ranch for those interested.  Just so you know, the asking price is about $23 million.

Another ranch I did see, but don't have its name, was also pretty impressive.  Notice the planetarium on the grounds.

There were also good views of the Sneffels Range in the distance.

On the return to Montrose, I drove a couple back roads and found more colorful trees.  In fact, within town are many nice trees, but the scenery around them isn't as attractive.

FYI, with cold weather coming to Colorado, I will be leaving soon for my regular Winter hiatus.  At this point, I still haven't decided exactly where I'll be going first, but I'll try to make it somewhere interesting.