It was getting toward the tail end of the fall colors, and I knew my opportunity was quickly disappearing. For a while, I had wanted to make the drive to Twin Lakes, Colorado, to photograph one of the beautiful aspen groves tucked back in the mountains. If we waited much longer, though, the next strong wind could strip the trees and our chance would be gone for another year.

So, on a crisp fall morning, my wife and I loaded up the dog, packed my camera gear, and started the hour-and-a-half drive toward Twin Lakes.

As we approached the small mountain town, we turned off the highway and eventually found ourselves creeping along a narrow, one-lane dirt road. The farther we drove into the mountains, the more the aspens began towering above us. At times, the road seemed to go on forever, and I kept wondering whether we had come too late or if we would find the scene I had pictured in my mind.

Then we found it.

We pulled over, climbed out, and suddenly I didn't know where to point my camera first.

Golden and orange aspens surrounded us, glowing against an impossibly deep blue Colorado sky. The morning had warmed just enough that I was comfortable in my fleece, but every so often a gust of cool mountain air would sweep through the grove. The treetops would begin to sway, and hundreds of golden leaves would break free and come drifting down around us like snow.

For a few moments, it was almost overwhelming. Everywhere I looked there was another photograph—the towering trunks, the glowing leaves, the brilliant sky, the mountains beyond. I could hear the dry leaves crackling beneath my feet and the wind moving through the canopy overhead.

Instead of trying to capture everything, I finally stopped.

I stood beneath those towering aspens, pointed my camera straight toward the sky, and pressed the shutter.

That's when I captured this photograph.

Looking at it now takes me right back to that moment—the blue sky overhead, the golden leaves glowing in the sunlight, the sound of the wind and leaves all around us. We had made the long drive hoping there would still be some fall color left, but what we found was better than anything I had imagined.

Some photographs remind you of what a place looked like.

This one reminds me of what it felt like to be there.

And that's why this is one fall day I will always remember.