Early Autumn Colors in Summit County, Colorado

Trees in Early Autumn

Location:  Summit County, Colorado, USA

It is still September, but many of the trees in the Colorado high country already are sporting their Autumn colors.  Most of the trees on this hillside are aspens, famous for bright gold foliage at this time of year.  The photo was taken outside the little town of Blue River, Colorado.

The Many Colors of Slate

Dry Stack Slate

Location:  Westminster, Colorado, USA

This is a section of a fireplace constructed from slate quarried in Colorado.  If you thought that slate was necessarily black or dark gray, think again.  As this photo shows, slate occurs in a myriad of colors.

Conifer Tree Rings

Cross-section of Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta latifolia)

Location:  Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA

This is the top of the stump of a Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta latifolia) that had just been cut down by staff members in Rocky Mountain National Park. The tree's annual growth rings are clearly visible.  I thought the variations in coloration were interesting.

Lichens on a rock

Lichens

Location:  Estes Park, Colorado, USA

I don't profess to know much about lichens, but I do know that they can be categorized  according to their growth form.  Lichens that form a sort of crust on rocks or tree bark or whatever substrate they grow upon are called "crustose" lichens.  I'm thinking the lichens in this photo may qualify as crustose lichens.  (Then again, I may be wrong, so don't quote me!)  

A Profusion of Pine Cones

Location:  Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA

In an area of Rocky Mountain National Park dominated by Lodgepole Pines and Ponderosa Pines, the ground alongside a certain hiking trail was completely carpeted with pine cones and twigs.  Here and there a few green seedlings poked through the piney rubble.

Close-up: Areca Palm Trunk

Areca palm (Dypsis lutescens)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

On the side of our house that faces the road, we have a palm garden.  Among the several palm species there is a thick stand of Areca palms (Dypsis lutescens), serving as a privacy screen.  The Areca's leaves, or fronds, also provide shade for that side of the house in the morning.

The trunks of Arecas resemble bamboo.  This close-up photo shows a section of the trunk of one of our Areca palms.

A Pāhoehoe Lava Rainbow

Pāhoehoe Lava

Location:  Mauna Loa, Big Island, Hawaii

Pāhoehoe is one of the two types of lava emitted from Hawaii's volcanoes.  Pāhoehoe comes out of the volcano as thick, syrupy, molten rock.  Many different minerals are present in the lava in molten form.   The temperature of the lava and its mineral composition act together to yield the color of the lava once it has cooled.   Most cooled pāhoehoe is black or gray, but if you walk around an old lava field, from time to time you will come across a section that is colored red, ochre, or even blue.

We discovered this flat patch of pāhoehoe on an old (1935) lava flow from Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano.  As you can see, it has a rainbow of colors on it surface.

Green Matter

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

This image was cropped from a larger photo.  I eliminated a wooden structure and some trees trees from the picture to create this study of natural green shades in a field on our property.

Our house is located in an area that used to be grazing land, belonging to one of the largest ranches on Hawaii's Big Island.  The ranch still owns vast pastures, but some of the land was sold as multi-acre parcels for residential use.  While most of the houses there have landscaping and gardens around them, remnants of the pastures also remain.   The darker green patch in the lower part of this photo is the edge of the half-acre on our land that is cultivated.  The rest has been left as it was when we arrived -- a field of wild grasses where cattle and sheep once grazed.

Endless Clouds

Location:  40,000 Feet Above the Eastern Pacific Ocean

As I flew from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland earlier this month, the cloud cover was nearly solid for most of the way.  We didn't get many glimpses of the ocean some eight miles below us, but some of the cloud formations aloft were quite striking.

Hala Tree Trunk Close-up

Hala (Pandanus tectorius)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Yesterday I posted a picture of a Hala tree (Pandanus tectorius).   Here is a close-up photo of the surface of its trunk.  As its leaf blades are shed, they leave behind ridges that spiral around the trunk.