First Snow – Colorado

First Snow – Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Draped in the season’s first snow, the warm palette of autumn aspens lingers amidst the icy hues of winter spruce. At nearly 10,000 feet, among the cliffs and peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park, aspens are one of the few deciduous trees hardy enough to survive. Because of the short growing season, aspen seeds have difficulty germinating. Instead, the trees can propagate by sending up shoots from a sprawling root system, a process called suckering. In this way, the genetics of a single tree can grow into a grove that can survive for thousands of years. When aspens are replaced by conifers, the root system remains dormant. If the conifer forest is later disturbed by fire or other natural disasters, the aspen root system can send up new shoots and the grove can regenerate.