Rising to an elevation of 11,317′ and taking up half of the mighty Aquarius Plateau of South Central Utah, Boulder Mountain towers over the surrounding deserts. It is a wonderland of tall lodge pole pines and aspen groves.

On my return from the Southwest adventure in September/October I crossed over the mass of Boulder on my way from Escalante to Torrey just in time to catch the aspens at the peak of their autumn glory. With all of the Beauty around me it’s a wonder I made it over the mountain at all.

A focal length of 135mm, short telephotoland, gave me the compression and angle-of-view I wanted as the sun peeked through the overcast and lit up the closest grove. An aperture of f/16 from the camera-to-subject distance offered plenty of depth-of-field; and a shutter speed of 1/30th second at ISO 200 was enough to stop the motion from the soft breezes wafting over the mountain.

Much of Boulder lies within the Dixie National Forest, one of our great Public Forestlands of the Colorado Plateau.