Mellow Yellow

Aspens are trees of the willow family and comprise a section of the poplar genus. The fall foliage of a Quaking Aspen Tree is almost synonymous with autumn in the American west. Aside from their beauty they have some very practical uses such as matches and bedding for animals, also Aspens contain a small quantity of salicin and populin, relatives and precursors of aspirin. Several different Indian tribes used the Leaves and leaf buds to treat burns, irritations, aches, and swollen joints. Lonely Basque immigrant sheepherders from the Pyrenees Mountains, who came to the United States between 1860 and 1930, would carve their names and birth dates along with their family histories in the aspens white bark. Albert Camus a philosopher and journalist who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 once wrote, "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." In Colorado it's not difficult to find a perfect gathering of aspens, but as a photographer it was difficult to decide on one aspen image that I felt adequately expressed my time exploring the yellow, red and gold back- roads of Colorado.