Richard Smith, front, Dan Martineau, rear, and guide Cody Powell fly fish on the Roaring Fork River. (By Jeffrey Aaronson, Network Aspen, for USA TODAY)

ASPEN, Colo. -- After the riffs of the Labor Day jazz festival fade and before the snow powder dusts these celebrated ski slopes in November, a gentle season settles in here.

 At 7,908 feet, the Aspen fall is a narrow window. But what a view. There's a reason they named the town after the trees.

Autumn is when everyone breathes easier in the thin air, lingers longer on the footpaths and finally snares a parking space in front of the Gap.

And this being Aspen, it's a time when the resort industry has become increasingly adept at keeping the tourists coming.

During the past decade, Aspen and other Colorado ski resorts succeeded in boosting summer tourism to a level that almost rivals winter's. That left two off-seasons to exploit. Spring is hopeless because it's cruel and sloppy, like a hangover from winter. But autumn, when the weather holds, can be positioned as the sweet, short season that's long on bargains and scenery.

Hotels lead the charge. Fall rates at the town's luxe lodgings are often less than half those in winter. A night's stay at the Mobil five-star Little Nell can be had for $205 in October vs. $475 in January. A two-bedroom condo at The Gant goes for $160 vs. $535 at Christmas.

Those promotions are most popular ''with people who can drive here from Utah or other parts of Colorado,'' says Diane Moore, head of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association.

Sean Kline, reservations manager at The Little Nell, says the hotel gets more spur-of-the-moment traffic in fall, from ''people who have driven out to see the leaves and then decide to stay.'' Kline notes that the hotel's higher summer rates extend through September, ''but we'll do some negotiating at the desk.''

 Hotels also court group sales at this time of year.

 ''Typically, year-round, Aspen is full on the weekends, but in the fall it was in the midweek where you might need help. The trend I've seen in the last few years is businesses coming in for their corporate retreats,'' says Kim Stachowski, marketing director for The Sardy House and Hotel Lenado. Usually mornings are for dissecting flow charts, and afternoons are for floating down the Colorado River or hiking toward the Maroon Bells peaks.

The approach seems to be taking hold: Lodging occupancy rates for September/October were about 12% higher during 1994-97 than in 1990-93, according to the resort association.

But the crowds still are minuscule compared with the tens of thousands who flock here in summer and winter. Year-round residents, who view fall as ''their time,'' say the town of 5,400 reverts to more natural dimensions then.

''You're more likely to get help, to get someone to give you directions,'' says Scott Brasington, general manager of the Japanese restaurant Kenichi. ''We're all a little slower and happier.''

This reflective ambience blends nicely with the area's attractions. Chief among them are hiking and biking trips among the spindly aspens, whose leaves are most dazzling during the last two weeks of September and the first week of October.

 ''They're a different gorgeous from the Eastern leaves,'' says Kline, with the intense gold of the aspens against a backdrop of evergreens. The gold then fades to silver.

 Golfing options have increased dramatically here this year with the opening of three private courses and one public course, River Valley Ranch in Carbondale, about 30 miles away. Each offers the unspoken promise that balls will travel about 10% farther in the thin air. The 7,311-yard River Valley Ranch course sits astride the Crystal River in the shadow of 12,953-foot Mount Sopris. It closes Nov. 1 to protect the bald eagle nesting ground near holes 16 and 17.

 The other quintessential fall activity, which has flourished throughout Colorado in the wake of the 1992 film A River Runs Through It, is fly-fishing.

The Aspen area boasts three rivers, the Frying Pan, Roaring Fork and Colorado, which have portions rated as ''gold medal'' by anglers. That means they have ''the opportunity for growing and sustaining trophy-size trout,'' says guide Kyle Holt of Oxbow Outfitting Co.

 ''We've really busted our butts to promote this season,'' says Oxbow Outfitting owner Jonathan Feinberg, who says his fall outings are usually 60% booked by mid-August.

 A typical float fishing trip costs about $300 per boat per day, including equipment, lunches and guides to drive to the river, row the boat and even tie the flies. Clients then can focus their attention on the fish, which may or may not be paying attention to them.

''Fall is best for fishing here because there are fewer people,'' says Jamie Shoch, a financial consultant from Pasadena, Calif., who warmed up for fall recently during an excursion with three buddies on the Roaring Fork.

''There are times in July when you almost have to pick a number to get on the river,'' Aspen businessman Dan Martineau says.

There is no competition among this group. If one of the companions gets the first strike, ''I simply kill them,'' says Richard C. Smith, a lawyer from Newport Beach, Calif.

Potential visitors who would be seduced by these rosy views of autumn should also consider some colder facts: The weather can either be Indian-summer spectacular or early-winter miserable. Snow is not uncommon by late October. And at least a third of the top restaurants close.

''The last three years we stayed open, but we decided it didn't make any sense to do it this year,'' says Douglas Clayton, manager of Ajax Tavern, which closes Oct. 1 through Nov. 15.

More worrisome for the long term is whether the sense of escape, so integral to Aspen, can be preserved. Highway 82 between Aspen and Carbondale is being widened for four lanes, and one stretch just outside town now has a special commuter lane. The roar of chain saws and dust from earthmovers drift over those fishing holes. And land prices, which affect most other prices, continue to cause more nosebleeds than the altitude.

So in its 118th year, Aspen is refashioning itself again for the future. But those traces of the old, quieter ways that remain reveal themselves in autumn.