I spent a lot of my youth in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and we always had aspen trees but nothing ever prepared me for this stand that we found on a day trip in the Heber City area.
All the aspen trees in one grove are related by their root system with there usually being one parent. It is better explained by Wikipedia -"All of the aspens typically grow in large clonal colonies, derived from a single seedling, and spread by means of root suckers; new stems in the colony may appear at up to 30–40 m (98–131 ft) from the parent tree. Each individual tree can live for 40–150 years above ground, but the root system of the colony is long-lived. In some cases, this is for thousands of years, sending up new trunks as the older trunks die off above ground. For this reason, it is considered to be an indicator of ancient woodlands. One such colony in Utah, given the nickname of "Pando", is estimated to be 80,000 years old,[2] making it possibly the oldest living colony of aspens. Some aspen colonies become very large with time, spreading about 1 m (3.3 ft) per year, eventually covering many hectares. They are able to survive forest fires, because the roots are below the heat of the fire, with new sprouts growing after the fire burns out."
@joysfocus Thank you so much for visiting my page! I loved your pelicans so much. Once I got to hold a pelican as I waited for help to come save it. I have felt a connection to them ever since.
I don't think there are many things that are as fascinating as aspens - their stunning fall colors and their beautiful bark - how they always seem to reach to the sky. We used to visit the Gunnison National Forest area near Crested Butte each fall for many years - that's where I first learned their amazing history. What a super shot of these beauties.
