The Golden Glow of Flagstaff

For a brief number of weeks, Northern Arizona becomes a stunning landscape during the changing of the aspens from green to gold. The color is so intense, it feels like the trees are beaming their very own rays of sunshine.

Everyone flocks to Lockett Meadow, because there is a dense concentration of aspens, but it also becomes a dense concentration of cars and people this time of year. There is actually a wait list to enter through the Lockett Meadow trail head because of the congestion. For those willing to take the longer way in, Waterline road is a 10-mile (one way) dirt road going from Schultz Tank to Lockett Meadow/Inner Basin with about 1100ft elevation gain. You can see from the first picture below there was a bad burn over Waterline road some years ago, so the scenery can feel barren. In my opinion it was still beautiful nonetheless, especially with the bright blue Arizona sky above.