What an absolutely gorgeous day! Fall is finally here, and today is "Color Sunday". This is the day where everyone makes the trek up to Grand Mesa to take pictures of all the trees in fall color. We were going to go up there, but instead decided to visit Piñon Mesa (Google Maps link) to avoid the crowds. Brian's family has a cabin up on Piñon Mesa as well, and I'd never had the chance to visit. The drive up the Colorado National Monument was very nice, not too much traffic; mostly bicycles. I would imagine that's a tough ride up, the monument road is pretty steep. I didn't take any pictures until we got up to Piñon Mesa. The roads were dirt, and there weren't too many places to pull over where I wanted to take any. Brian showed me his favorite camping spot, and we got out and walked around the area a bit.  There was someone back in the spot, but we got some pictures out by the road: The colors were stunning, my pictures really do not do it justice. The dogs had a great time, they'd never been in the woods before and OMG THE SMELLS CAN'T YOU SMELL IT IT'S SO COOL MOM. Yeah. We drove up the road a bit more, and finally reached the cabins. It looked like there was someone there for the weekend, but there was nobody around when we stopped. I love it up there... the cabins are tucked back in a stand of aspen, and with the colors changing it was just gorgeous. We didn't stay long, there were cows and an electric fence so we left the dogs in the truck. We didn't need them getting zapped or stomped on. I told Brian we need to come up next year and spend the weekend either at the cabin or just out camping. I think I could survive a weekend out in the wilderness if I had an air mattress; I used to go camping all the time when I was younger. I miss it. The trip down was a bit different, we drove through several enormous cattle ranches to get back down to Glade Park. I took some pictures from an overlook, and made a panorama (click to get the full size view): Brian thinks that the creek running through the middle is Beezer Creek, if you're curious. We stopped at Serpent's Trail to get one more picture on the way down the Monument, I made a panorama of that one as well. Click to embiggen. One of these days I want to do the hike down Serpent's Trail. It's about two miles down from where I took this picture, but the path is really good. I think if I went on a good day, when it wasn't too hot, I might be able to make the trip down the trail if we had someone to pick us up at the end. It might take me a while, but I felt really sad when I was taking this picture and I realized "this is all I'll ever be able to see of this trail". But, after Brian described it to me, I think I could do it. As long as I can stop and rest on the way, right? Here's hoping that someday I can do it. All in all, it was a wonderful day. I'm tired and sore, but I had such a good time. I've been getting so tired of being cooped up in the house all the time, and days like today are so necessary for my sanity. I want to do it again.