Sapphire Mountains aspen autumn
— — the week the aspen pockets all light up at once.
Not only on a wall.
“The Sapphires are the quieter range across the valley from the Bitterroots. Lower, drier, less photographed. In the second week of October the aspen stands tucked between the lodgepole turn at almost the same hour, and the east-facing slopes go gold in patches you can count from the valley floor. By the third week the wind takes them. from the studio
Sapphire Mountains aspen autumn, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Sapphire Mountains run roughly 80 miles north to south along the east side of the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana, separating the Bitterroot River drainage from the Rock Creek and Flint Creek drainages. The range tops out near 9,000 feet at Kent Peak. Most of the high country sits within the Bitterroot and Lolo National Forests, with a designated Wilderness Study Area covering about 94,000 acres. Hamilton anchors the valley floor to the west; Philipsburg sits in the next basin east.
Quaking aspen across the Sapphires colour in a narrow window, usually the second week of October. The shift runs east-facing slopes first, where overnight cold pools longest, then sweeps the draws and benches over about ten days. Lodgepole and Douglas-fir hold the dark green around them, which is what gives the gold its sharpness. The first sustained windstorm of the month, typically near the 20th, strips most of the leaves in a single day.
Skalkaho Pass Highway 38 is the main crossing of the range, a graded gravel road open roughly Memorial Day through mid-October. The pass crests at 7,260 feet and connects Hamilton to Philipsburg in about 54 miles. The road is unpaved for the middle 30 miles and not maintained in winter. Forest Service road 1352 climbs to the Sapphire Wilderness Study Area boundary for hikers. No fees. Cell service ends at the valley edge.