Lair o' the Bear 2012

After I'd decided I'd spent enough time at Evergreen Lake on Saturday I headed back home down 74 through Kittredge.  Approaching Lair o' the Bear Park I pulled over to take a shot of some of the foliage along Bear Creek.

So why waste such wonderful conditions?  I hadn't been to the park since a late fall trip with Taryn three years earlier.  At 8:45 the hour was still early, the colors vibrant and the light excellent.

Down the Creekside Trail I went, stopping regularly to take advantage of a fantastic combination of running water, colorful foliage and bright blue skies.

I was struck at how flat the trail was, something you definitely don't get a lot of in Colorado.  Something I need to keep in mind for future visits from flatlanders who want to go for a hike but would likely struggle with altitude and elevation gain.

Bear Creek wasn't especially deep, but was still running fairly strong.

I was amused at how this shot made an idyllic mountain creek look nearly like something from Heart of Darkness.

The older I get, the more I favor the moderate seasons of spring and fall over the extreme seasons of summer and winter.  The mild temperatures this morning were just another reminder why that is.

Like Maxwell Falls on Monday, the leaves that were beginning to fall from the trees hadn't yet gotten trampled and brown and still left a nice bright yellow layer on the trail.

I'm still a sucker for solar bursts and lens flare.

What seemed like just a few minutes in the park was actually nearly 40.  Time flies when you're shooting foliage!