Some of the best places to see the colors of autumn

Autumn is my favorite time of the year.

The air is crisp, most bugs and snakes have gone to bed for the long winter night, fish are getting more active and my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, ice fishing season are all on the horizon. Plus the election are over. But while that’s all good, my favorite part of fall time are the colors of the foliage in the forest, on the desert and along the streams.

Red, purple, yellow, orange abound in eastern Idaho during the fall. My favorite are aspens that turn a yellowish orange usually found on edges of large groves of yellow-colored trees. Then comes my second favorite color — the red maple bushes on Ashton Hill or in the mouth of Palisades Canyon in Swan Valley. I also love the contrasts of the dark green evergreens with the Christmas “lights” of the broadleaf colors scattered throughout the forest.

The changing of the colors of the leaves are magical to me, even the creation of the green in spring is almost unbelievable.

In the spring a food processing factory uses chlorophyll to absorb the energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water to manufacture starch and sugars (I learned this in high school 56 years ago, so hopefully that is still correct). This process also creates the green, yellow and orange pigments with the great amounts of green masking the other colors.

As autumn approaches and the days shorten and the temperature cools, the food factory closes down and the chlorophyll starts to break down causing the green pigments to disappear. This leaves the yellow and orange pigments to color the leaves. In some plants more chemical changes occur in the fall creating the red pigments from which reds and purples come from.

The brightness of the foliage is determined by the weather and how much moisture is available for the trees before the factory shuts down. A frost too early may diminish the colors while low temperatures above freezing favor the building of the red pigments.

Also at this time an army of microscopic workers get busy building a dam where the leaf attaches to the stem. As this dam is being built a team of mini doctors are busy making sure the sore on the tree has scabbed over before the leaf falls off, leaving a healing scar to protect the tree.

Other than Ashton Hill and Palisades Creek to enjoy the colors of autumn are the groves around Henrys Lake, Fall River, Teton Canyon east of Driggs, Bishop Mountain in Island Park, Sand Creek Ponds north of St. Anthony and the south end of Palisades Reservoir.

The time to enjoy the brilliant colors is right now before too many of the dam builders get busy causing the trees to become leafless. If you have a favorite fall activity, take an hour or two to visit the broadleaf groves to enjoy magical painting of nature.