San Juan Aspens

Thie is the original homestead of a ranch in the San Juan Mountians above the town of Uray, Colorado.

The Aspens in the background are an old stand about 70 years old with many dying of dieases. Elk scrapes on bottom of trees makes infections a easy entry. The owner informed me some of these were up to 60 years old which is about the maximum age they grow.

I found names and dates carved into some of these with 1903 the oldest insription and surmised it must be a birth date of one of the inhabitants. These were hardy folks living at almost 10,000 feet with a long and lonly winter.

Sony a100
70-200 G Sony f 2.8 zoom @70mm
ISO 400
1/120 sec @ f10
cpl filter
handheld
LR3 raw
Cs5 corrections and full frame