Fall color in the West wears two distinct faces. One is shaped by the bigleaf maple, the other by the aspen. An the landscapes they inhabit couldn’t be more different.
Bigleaf maple territory is the realm of moisture and moss. These trees thrive in the damp, temperate forests of the Pacific Coast, from coastal California to Washington. In autumn, these forests turn warm and golden, with enormous maple leaves that glow a soft yellow against a backdrop of evergreen. The effect is understated, lush, and earthy—fall as a slow burn.
Aspen territory, on the other hand, belongs to altitude and openness. Aspens dominate the high mountains of the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin. Their landscapes are crisp and dry: wide valleys, cold nights, bright days, and thin air. When fall arrives, aspen groves ignite into shocking neon yellows. Unlike the maples’ gentle glow, aspens shimmer, flicker, and blaze with movement whenever the wind passes through their leaves.
Where bigleaf maples create cathedrals of gold in damp forests, aspens create ribbons of light across mountainsides. Both are beautiful, both distinctly Western, but each offers a completely different mood.
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Wall Art landscapes and miscellaneous
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It is all about the light 
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