We can’t miss our annual trip to Lockett Meadow and hike the Inner Basin Trail, well, because this kind of trip first started 14 years ago when I proposed to my then girlfriend and now wife. So, it’s a special time to see the fall colors to remember that special day and to watch our kids revel in the vibrancy of gold colored aspens. We luckily found a close parking spot even on a weekday. The twisty, bumpy dirt road leads us around a bend to our first sight of Lockett Meadow and a display of yellow and green. This fall-color-spot is popular and fills up fast on the weekends for sure. We get ready, load up the two littlest kids in backpacks and head up the trail. We are greeted early on with a grove of young aspens blushing orange instead of yellow. The aspens disappear for a while as well tromp through spruce and pine. A then, suddenly, we stand among thousands of aspens crowned in gold! It’s breathtaking! The wind quakes the leaves and yellow leaves sometimes drift down. Can you catch one? Skyler tries. We continue hiking up a little more to break for a snack and take in a hillside of yellow treetops. Going back down, we are delighted by the light flickering through the aspens until we finally make it back down to the parking lot. We pull out an old blanket and rest at Lockett Meadow with sandwiches and cookies. Afterwards, we wander through the warm colors of autumn, enjoying the perfect blue skies and pleasant 75 degree temps. Here are some favorite photos from the day (what ones to make into paintings….?):
