Sometimes however, you just have to ditch the plan, go with the flow and adapt to the conditions at hand. This was the position I found myself in last week in Rocky Mountain National Park. After a long winter I was looking forward to an early morning hike up to the Loch for sunrise. Of course a three mile long hike up to the Loch before sunrise requires a commitment. Once you set off from your car and get into the backcountry, your not going to have the time or energy to turn around and change your plans and put yourself in a good position for the fast approaching sunrise.

Conditions were looking pretty good as I drove through the Beaver Meadows entry to Rocky Mountain National Park. There were plenty of clouds hovering over the park which of course increases the probability for lots of color at sunrise. I made the left turn onto Bear Lake Road and wound my way down through Moraine Park. From Moraine Park one gets a commanding view of the continental divide and the prominent peaks on the east side of Rocky. I could see clearly from Moraine Park that all the clouds had moved east of the continental divide. It sure looked like the peaks would be devoid of any clouds this morning. Regardless I was determined to hike up to the Loch so I continued on to the Glacier Gorge parking lot hoping the cloud cover would thicken over the high peaks.

Arriving at the Glacier Gorge parking lot I could clearly see there were no clouds over any of the peaks to the west but plenty of clouds still to the east. Putting on my backpack I had a nagging feeling that I might not be in the best spot for sunrise. A gust of wind made my decision for me. No clouds over the peaks, lots of wind and decent cloud cover to the east and I was back in my truck quickly heading back down to Moraine Park.

I did not have a great plan at this point but sunrise to the east was looking promising. I figured I would get into the meadow in Moraine Park face east and setup near some water. I settled on a spot near where Cub Creek spills out into Moraine on it’s way towards the Big Thompson. Soon the sky above Moraine Park was ablaze with color and I was busy photographing one beautiful sunrise. So while I missed my hike to the Loch, changing up the game plan and staying flexible paid dividends for me this morning.

As I write this, I’m staring out my window at trees with vibrant greens leaves of spring. The issue of course is there is a good six inches of snow covering the leaves and branches of said tree from last nights storm, and oh yeah, the snow is still falling. I’m not complaining. Bad weather makes for great images and as the saying goes, when the weather gives you lemons, you need to make lemonade or something to that extent.

While there was still a good amount of snow hanging around the higher elevations of Rocky Mountain National Park, spring like conditions where quickly starting to settle in. Lakes and streams in the lower to mid elevations of the park had thawed and are free from ice. In fact many of the lakes even at higher elevations had thawed to the point of having large areas of water free from ice. It’s an exciting time of year when winter starts to release it’s grip and new opportunities for photography open up.

With the wind howling, and snow blowing I arrived at Cub Lake before sunrise. Like I always do when its this windy, I checked for some area of water that was partially sheltered from the winds which where forming small white caps on Cub Lake. No such luck, pretty much the entire lake was being raked by the wind. There was one small area near the outlet to the lake which was not as choppy and a little more smooth than directly along the shoreline. Problem is I would have to wade into the mud a foot plus deep water to get in a position to photograph.

The sky was starting to fill with intense color over Cub Lake. Off I went wading through the mud, muck, water and snow with camera and tripod in hand. I would not be able to capture a reflection of Stones Peak from this location, but the greening grasses growing from the lake made a nice enough foreground. So while the wind only intensified, the light and color put on by the rising sun was well worth wet pants, boots and cold feet.

Summer season in Rocky is almost here. Sure there is lots of snow in the high country of Rocky, but conditions are changing quickly. The weather is finally warming and the snow is starting to melt at a good pace. Lakes like Sprague and Cub have mostly thawed and are free from ice. Many of the other lakes around 9000 ft or less have also opened up or are partially open. Grasses are starting to green in both Moraine and Horseshoe park. Summer will be here before you know it, and I for one can wait.

Besides checking out the conditions around Rocky Mountain National Park this week, I also took the time to photograph a few mornings. In particular, I was able to photograph one area that I’ve been eyeing since last fall. It’s an image that was not possible before last Septembers flooding. The flooding while devastating has mostly been mitigated to a point that only small areas of Rocky Mountain National Park are affected.

Stream crossings on many trailheads are missing and many places along Old Fall River road have been washed out, but considering the vastness of Rocky these will only prove to be minor inconveniences for summer visitors to Rocky. The power and scope of the flooding is still evident in Rocky Mountain National Park in many areas however. In particular the landscape along the Roaring River and the Alluvial Fan reveals the intensity with which the flooding occurred.

The Alluvial Fan was formed when a man made dam failed at Lawn Lake on July 15th, 1982. Three visitors lost their lives and the dam break flooded downtown Estes Park. The torrent of water pushed boulders and sand downstream forming the Alluvial Fan in Horseshoe Park. Fast forward to September of 2013 and the area saw a near repeat of the Lawn Lake dam break, this time caused by nearly 20 inches of rain over a three day period.

The September flooding once again greatly altered the area around the Alluvial Fan and the Roaring River. At the base of the Alluvial Fan, the Roaring River jumped it’s banks and diverted itself from flowing southward, to instead flowing around the road bridge on Old Fall River road and heading due west prior to resuming it’s southerly course a quarter of a mile downstream. This new course forged by the Roaring River due west has opened up some new photographic potential around the Alluvial Fan.

With the Roaring River now flowing east to west over this newly formed 1/4 mile course, I had been waiting for favorable conditions to photograph this area. A combination of increased spring runoff combined with some nice clouds over Horseshoe Park last week brought just the right conditions to photograph this area.

While I’m used to making attempts to photograph places in Rocky that are often new to me, it’s not everyday that I actually have the opportunity to photograph something new without having to wait the usual thousands of years or so that natures slow pace typically dictates. So out of all the destruction and loss the September flooding has caused, the silver lining is that it has also created new opportunities to photograph Rocky Mountain National Park as well.