"The days may not be so bright and balmy—yet the quiet and melancholy that linger around them is fraught with glory. Over everything connected with autumn there lingers some golden spell—some unseen influence that penetrates the soul with its mysterious power." ~ Northern Advocate

Photographed near the Grand Canyon's North Rim, along Highway 67, as you approach the North Rim entrance. It is hard to miss the large stands of Quaking Aspen that seem to line the meadow edges. While pockets of aspen were throughout the forest, it seems the greatest numbers of them line the edges of the forest, where it meets the meadows, as if they were guardians protecting the mixed pine trees behind them from the meadow itself. When I spied this one young lone Ponderosa tree, like it had ventured out past all that's safe, I knew I had to try to capture the image.

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the most widely distributed tree in North America. It is known by many names: trembling aspen, golden aspen, mountain aspen, popple, poplar, trembling poplar, and in Spanish, álamo blanco, and álamo temblón. It grows on many soil types, especially sandy and gravelly slopes, and it is quick to pioneer disturbed sites where there is bare soil. This fast-growing tree is short lived and pure stands are gradually replaced by slower-growing species.