Spring began in Rocky Mountain National Park in date only last week. It was anything but spring like as a powerful late season storm brought heavy snow which was followed by very cold air from our neighbors to the north.

I should know better, but every March a few days of mild weather makes me dream of the rapidly approaching summer season. Visions of warm days, bubbling streams, glass like alpine lakes and sunshine dance fill my thoughts. This latest storm quickly put a damper on those thoughts and a quick reset back to reality.

Last year at this time the lakes in Rocky where actually beginning to thaw and open up. Well, what a difference a year makes. I figured I’d take advantage of the winter like conditions and head up to Emerald Lake.

The area around Emerald Lake is a favorite of mine as stunted and twisted tree’s can be found around the lake. Snow and wind accompanied me on the hike up to Emerald. There would be no sunrise this morning, just clouds and blowing snow. In other words, a perfect spring day for a hike in the park.

I spent the morning photographing the stunted trees around Emerald Lake in the snow. It’s always a bit surreal walking around the frozen surface of a lake. It allows viewpoints and access one cant achieve when the lake is thawed but in the back of your mind your aware your standing in the middle of a frozen body of water.

The conditions were perfect for photographing the trees. The snow and blowing snow created a beautiful Hi-key affect that allowed endless compositions of my favorite subjects. So while I may have been bemoaning the weather the conditions allowed for a great few days of photography. I just enjoyed myself and the weather. Heck I’ll be shooting reflections of Hallet Peak in Emerald Lake in no time.

March in the Rocky Mountains is a very dynamic month. In many ways, I find March to be one of the hardest months to successfully photograph. While most areas of the country are anticipating the start of spring like weather and mild days ahead, the Rockies instead ramp up winter for good measure.

With March being one of Rocky Mountain National Park’s wettest months, typically means nice dumps of snow and moisture. We of course desperately need the moisture but the combination of snow and winds that accompany each passing system can make it difficult to be out in the field photographing.

I look at the month of March as a tease. A few mild, warm and sunny days sprinkled in for good measure with a ragging blizzards and cold blustery northerly winds tossed in as reminder that winter still has a few good rounds left in her. In other words, March wants you to know it’s not quite time to unpack the Hawaiian shirts and flip flops just yet.

The weather this March in Rocky Mountain National Park has been mostly following along course. We’ve not seen a blizzard with heavy snow as of yet, and the park is desperately below the typical snowpack measurements, but March remains raw and ever changing.

With the lakes still frozen over and the streams just beginning to reveal moving water beneath the ice and thaw, I headed out looking for subjects that remain interesting regardless of the season. With a new storm system quickly descending on the park, I hiked up to a favorite location in Glacier Gorge.

The skies were cloudy and snow was moving in over the high peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park. I was hoping that the small break in the cloud cover on the eastern horizon would hold through sunrise and cause a kaleidoscope of colors as the cloud cover became illuminated by the sunrise.

A kaleidoscope of color was not to be this March morning in Glacier Gorge. There was however, just enough muted color in the sky over Glacier Gorge for a short time to make for a dynamic image of this krummholz tree.

This morning typifies this time of year in Rocky. Muted colors, cloud cover and snow partially covering the landscape as more begins to fall on the high peaks. A pair of Stellar Jays squawking at me as the sun rises over the Front Range of Colorado. It may be one of the more difficult and least inspiring times to photograph, but there are few other places I would rather be.

Dramatic sunrises and sunsets are hard to beat when it comes to photography. It’s hard to top the anticipation and excitement that comes from the experience of being in the right place at the right time and capturing the colors and intensity of an epic sunrise or sunset. I have to admit however, I enjoy being out in less ideal weather conditions just as much as I do the ideal ones.

Saturday was just such one of those days in Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather forecast called for blizzard like conditions during the day with high winds and heavy snow. Sounded like a perfect March day in Rocky to me.

Photographing in snow I really enjoy, high winds with blowing snow, not so much. These kinds of conditions open up so many different viewpoints and locations that would likely go ignored during more ideal conditions. It appeared there would be a short window in the morning where there would be moderate snow before the front moved east and the winds really started picking up.

I arrived at the Beaver Meadows entrance to Rocky about an hour before sunrise. It was snowing hard but the park was quiet and serene. My vehicle cut first tracks through the snow along the yet unplowed roads in the park. The plan was simple this morning. Cruise the roads along Moraine and Horseshoe Park attempting to capture Rocky without the drama of a spectacular sunrise, but instead the serenity of a March snowstorm.

It didn’t take long before I was being pounded by heavy wet flakes of snow, capturing images of evergreens and aspens in some of my favorite conditions. It’s days like these that I’m thankful that I shoot with a weather sealed body. It’s a chore in itself to keep your equipment clean and your lens elements dry but even if my body was not weather sealed, I still be out attempting to photograph in these wet conditions.

After about two hours of photographing in Moraine and Horseshoe Park, the winds really started to pick up and the snow was blowing hard. The conditions quickly got to the point where photography was becoming increasingly difficult. It was time to call it a day and start drying out my now soaked camera and lenses.

As far as I’m concerned it was another perfect morning in Rocky Mountain National Park and I’m just as pleased with my images from this morning as I am from mornings when I’m photographing more dramatic lighting in more ideal conditions. Got to love March in Rocky!.