Betty & I (& dawgz.  ‘n  bikes) drove up Land’s End Road middull of last week.  Our somewhat over-due autumnal fall-colours “Color Sunday” sojourn.  Colorful, none-the-less.

All photos by Betty!  None are “enhanced”!

Amazing thing is, to get to the top of Land’s End we drive 30 miles.  10 of it @ 60+ MPH highway speeds, then almost 10 more up a 2-lane paved county road — ~ 35-40 mph, then … “the fun stuff.”  Bumpy-washboard-y twisting turning sometimes less than 2 vehicles-wide gravel road.  But this is the scenic part.

Seems a lot of the green-red-yellow-brown-grey palette is in use …

Looking over (east/southeast) to a top-of-the-mesa outcrop south of Land’s End.

Hope he’s got enough nuttiness stored to wait out the impending winter!

Aspens — whirled-famous for their golden propensity.

It was a slightly hazy day.  Lookin’ down maybe 3500′ to the valley/desert floor.

and down on the winding road we’ve come up.

The turquoise/blue spot in the middle in the distance is Juniata Reservoir — civic water-supply for the city of Grand Junction.

Now we’re “on top” — about 10k’ elevation — and that ‘green swath’ (of irrigated land) pretty much defines the extent of our town and adjoining agricultural parcels.  Fading away to the west, past Fruita, one can probably sense or maybe even see Utah on the horizon.  Mt. Garfield protrudes on the right, mid-distance.

Upper portions of Land’s End Road.  The upper-most segment (5 or so miles) is often barely more than one vehicle wide — you really have to negotiate the hair-pin turns slowly!

I think Betty oughta consider the above as a potential quilting pattern?

We had NEVER seen Indian Paint-brush flowering in mid-October !