"No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face."~ John Donne

While hiking up the Upper Basin Trail, from Lockett Meadow below, I saw this perfect little tree that reminded me of a table top Christmas Tree. It had several golden yellow aspen leaves clinging to it already, and it reminded me of Christmas ornaments you would hang on a tree. But the only color leaf around was yellow and I thought some reds in addition would make this even prettier. But the lack of reds and the poor light at the moment let me pass this by, with the idea I might luck out later after finding some reds and getting better light. So, much further up the trail I found a good assortment of orange and red hues, which I collected.

Later when completing the day, I stopped by this tree on the way back, and I was indeed rewarded by much better light. After carefully placing the additional colored leaves on the tree, I caught this amusing image of my "pre-Christmas Autumnal Tree".