New Mexico pictures

"Steam rising underneath a canopy of whispering, changing aspens; starlight in the clear, dark night, and wondrous beauty in every direction. If only all could feel this way, to be so captured and enthralled with autumn." Author: Donna Lynn Hope

One of the few stands of Aspens with all its leaves

This year on the first day of our visit, we returned  to the same area above Mancos, Colorado. Years past, we headed for the Absolute Bakery and Cafe for breakfast.  Wrong day, they were closed.  I love this place!  Our son introduced us to this food haven years ago.  It is tiny, the coffee is always fresh and flavorful. I usually buy a bag or two of flavors to savor at home.
That said, we ate breakfast at a Mexican restaurant that was just opening. Huge platters of food.  Way too much for us seniors. Son made a valiant job of cleaning his plate.

With full stomachs, we headed to the usual look out area.  There are few really good and easy to take pictures of the scenery up here.  It was also a bit later in the season and many trees were bare or nearly.
Gives a good opportunity to compare years past.
For me, this blog is my diary and my photo album.  At this point in picture taking, I seem to have waaay too many of the same pictures and other special memories and always intend to thin out some.

Seeing this road with nearly bare branches, I worried that I couldn't get good pictures. You know what? This is a good picture. The camera is new and obviously could have been tweaked a bit.  I still like it.

From a distance the trees look bare. Up close, there are plenty of leaves.  The ground was damp and fallen leaves smelled so good.

I think I have taken this same shot over the years.  Must be access to the road. With my new hearing aids, I can walk into this stand of trees and hear the leaves rustling.  A good place for a cup of coffee, to just stand and listen.... 

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I know there were many, many other locations for aspen picture taking but this area is the closest and gives the excuse to visit the Bakery.  It might be "fun" to find photos of these spots from  years past and see the changes.  Weather plays

a big part in what we will find on our return. 

This is one of the "perfect" spots.

Cattle are ranging all over the area. There are fences and the cattle guards to keep them in certain areas.



I wonder if the cattle are driven down from higher elevations, or drift down on their own.

Clouds began to be the topic of conversation  We were up about 9000 ft.

This one became darker as I took this picture.

This odd formation is called a Pileus formation.

 One year, we got heavy snow on us before we got to a lower elevation.


Were on our way shortly.

Took quite a few shots of cloud as it moved "through" the hole

I love this picture.  Could have tweaked it,but like it as is