It’s been a difficult couple of weeks here in Colorado. We’ve had a very dry Winter, which turned into a very dry Spring and has continued on as an even hotter and dryer Summer. The conditions have made photography in Rocky Mountain National Park a challenge. The hot weather, combined with a general lack of clouds and persistent winds oftentimes means my Plan A agenda, quickly turns into a Plan B outcome.

Regardless of how challenging the photography has been in Rocky this Summer, it’s been a real life and death struggle for many Colorado residents. As of this writing, there are 8 wildfires burning in the State.

The second largest fire in the history of Colorado, the High Fire, is burning 20 miles or so northeast of Estes Park and has already claimed 191 homes and one life. To compound that, a house fire in Estes Park yesterday, just a few hundred yards from the Beaver Meadow entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park quickly burned 21 homes before being brought under control. Lastly, the Waldo Canyon fire is burning out of control just outside of the Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs.

The atmosphere along the northern Front Range has been filled with smoke for a few weeks now. Because of the smoke, much of the early morning light reaching the mountain peaks is diffused and lacks intensity and pop. Today, the smoke was as thick as it has been in weeks.

In an ironic twist, the smoke combined with high clouds rewarded me with a beautiful sunrise. Just above Nymph Lake, I was able to capture this image of the Sun rising through the smoke from the High Fire and clouds to the east. The colors were spectacular and the Sun rose as a blood red orb over the high plains.

While the sunrise was spectacular this morning, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the heat subsides and rain falls from the sky. Let’s hope the weather pattern changes and we start to see some moisture out here in the tinderbox that Colorado has become.

It’s hard to put into words exactly what it is about the Wild Basin section of Rocky Mountain National Park that feels so different and unique from others areas of Rocky. Wild Basin certainly does not get the fanfare other areas of Rocky Mountain National Park get such as Bear Lake Road, Dream Lake or Trail Ridge.

Perhaps it’s the lack of parking at most of the trailheads, or the windy and narrow dirt road used to get to the trailheads. It’s more likely its the fact that you cant drive a car right up to the many hidden treasures to found in Wild Basin. To me at least, Wild Basin has a much more understated beauty than many of the other areas of the park.

Wild Basin makes you work before revealing itself. The alpine lakes of Wild Basin are some of the most beautiful in all of Colorado, let alone Rocky Mountain National Park. Want to see Mount Alice and Lion Lake up close?. Well then your going to have to commit to a 14 mile round trip hike to do so.

Even for those not feeling spry enough for a 7 mile hike up into the beautiful alpine wilderness of Wild Basin, the lower regions are beautiful in their own right. The North Saint Vrain emanates out of this Basin on the south side of Longs Peak. The banks of the North Saint Vrain as well as many of the other creeks and streams found in Wild Basin are loaded with more subtle photographic opportunities.

Wild Basin is packed with great water features for photography. The trick is trying to find compositions that are not to busy or cluttered. The Pine Beetle infestation has felled many tree’s along the banks of the creeks. This means lots of log jam’s and dead tree’s strewn in and along the creeks, which of course can make photography of Wild Basin’s water features both interesting and difficult.

Copeland Falls, Calypso Cascades and Ouzel Falls are some of the more popular water features in Wild Basin. I settled on Ouzel Falls when I headed into Wild Basin last week. Wildflowers are starting to bloom along the creeks now and the spring runoff is starting to ebb making photography of the North Saint Vrain a bit more manageable.

I finally settled in on this image just below Ouzel Falls. It certainly does not have that smack you in the face beauty as a location such as Dream Lake, but images like this typify Wild Basin to me. Wildflowers, water, downed timber and rock’s entrenched deep within a subtle but beautiful area of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Each time I hit the road at o’dark thirty and head up to Rocky Mountain National Park the excitement of what I might photograph is palatable. Fortunately, that excitement remains just as palatable for me as the first time I headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park in the pre-dawn hours to capture sunrise.

Some of my friends, family and fellow photographers wonder why the fixation with photography and in particular Rocky Mountain National Park. I don’t have a perfect answer for them, but both photography and Rocky Mountain National Park continue to be an obsession of mine.

For me, it’s the thrill of the unknown. Even though Rocky is a location I spend much of my time exploring, I leave feeling like I have not even scratched the tip of the iceberg. The possibilities are endless and no two days or sunrises are ever the same.

I had no idea what I would walk away with this morning at Cub Lake. Rocky was quite breezy when I arrived and the outlook for clouds in the sky or a colorful sunrise did not look promising.

Regardless, I was still pumped up for the hike and the potential on the ride up. Getting out on the trail in the pre-dawn hours regardless of the ultimate outcome is therapeutic to the soul. Rocky Mountain National Park is just to majestic a location to walk away empty handed, image or not. It’s mornings and experiences like these that keep me mesmerized with photography and Rocky Mountain National Park. What get’s you out of bed at 2:30 AM?