Every autumn, Wes Heller gets a message.
“It’s time,” reads the e-mail from friends on the Front Range, advising the Texas retiree of the fall foliage peaking in Colorado.
So went the message Sunday that prompted Heller to drive all day and most of the night — 1,300 miles from his Houston suburb to an overlook off Colorado 72 north of Nederland.
“There ain’t nothing on God’s green Earth that beats this view at this hour in this season,” he said of the grove of golden aspen where he returns for at least one sunset at this time each year.
Heller knows something that many of us forget: Fall colors are fleeting. In case you’ve been too busy or city-bound to notice, many mid- elevation mountains are in full glory with red sumac, yellow aspen and every shade in between.
Turns out lots of folks have favorite stashes of foliage, and also preferred times to enjoy them.
“Seven a.m. through the cottonwoods along our dirt road” west of Loveland, said Gwen Leyba, who has taken the week off work to bike around the mountains checking out the leaves.
“Fishing in the Indian Peaks (Wilderness Area) in the morning in late September,” said William Ensign.
“Lunchtime, watching the leaves fall at Will’s secret fishing spot,” added Ensign’s brother, Jared.
There’s no secret about the spectacle of aspen this week along the Peak to Peak Highway. Swarms of motorists are pulling off the southbound shoulder all day to behold the trees.
The best light comes between 5 and 6 p.m. when the sun shines through the leaves at a tight, warm angle.
One Boulder mom yanked her teenager out of soccer practice to drive, sit and look.
A telecom manager from Englewood came in his convertible to watch the leaves shimmer to the accompaniment of a Brahms symphony on his car stereo.
Two 20-something couples from Berlin cruised by at the recommendation of their eco-tourist guidebook.
And a group of seniors from the Lodge at Balfour — an independent living center in Louisville — sat transfixed by the view without stepping foot out of their van.
“The contrast between the brilliant yellow, the green pine trees and the blue sky, it’s thrilling for us,” said Janet Beer, 83, who rode with her husband, Fred. “At our age, we’re not taking any season for granted.”
Heller, 78, has driven from Texas each fall since his wife died 16 years ago. Shortly after her funeral, he was packing up her things when he found one of her jigsaw puzzles — a scene of fall foliage in Colorado. That’s when he first hopped in his truck with his schnauzer, Precious, and hit the road to the Rockies.
Some years, it has rained at this overlook halfway between Ward and Nederland. Some years it has snowed. But every year, man and dog have waited out the weather for a sunset just like the one on the puzzle.
“One year, it took about a week. Remember, old girl?” he said, scratching the chin of his road-worn companion.
Heller leaned against his truck holding Precious and tilting his face toward the sunlight.
“One more year of aspen leaves,” he said. “We made it just in time one more year.”
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
