I debated on where to head for sunrise this morning and ended up at Lake Haiyaha as I figured I’d had not photographed there this year and I could keep my options open depending on the light at sunrise. It was a beautiful morning and great little hike over to Lake Haiyaha but sunrise ended up being a bust.

On my hike back down from Lake Haiyaha, I spied what looked like some really nice fall color below. I stopped along the exposed part of the trail and in fact there were quite a few aspen trees turning between Nymph Lake and Dream Lake. Down I scampered and to my surprise, there was a set of aspen trees in their autumn glory.

While this particular set of aspens are often some of the first to peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, August 25th is certainly the earliest I can remember photographing an entire grove of aspen trees in their fall splendor. You can always find a few leaves or branches here or there by Labor Day, but this is early. The heat and dry weather appears to be stressing the trees and causing them to turn earlier than most.

I setup as there is a great view across Glacier Gorge and Longs Peak from this location. The sun broke through the clouds for a few brief moments and cast light on the aspens while rain showers floated over Longs Peak. Not bad for August 25th in RMNP!. Before everybody panics, my guess is this will just be a few trees and when its all said and done it will be more on schedule then this early. Regardless, nobody knows as of yet but I can say it was certainly and early fall surprise.

With some major changes in the weather pattern at the back end of this week in Rocky Mountain National Park, one can hope that we are on the cusp of possibly clearing out the pesky wildfire smoke that has been making photography difficult for the past month or so. Cooler weather with some decent chances of moisture the end of this week and into next week should improve conditions as well as make for a few interesting sunrises and sunsets.

With the weather pattern changing, I hiked up to Bierstadt Lake hoping for some interesting light. Bierstadt Lake has in my opinion, one of the most spectacular views of the continental divide and its a fun little hike as well. I also wanted to see if there was any signs of fall color along the Bierstadt Moraine as I’ve seen a few trees here and there starting to change color. It’s not uncommon by Labor day to have the stray aspen tree here and there start showing of some golden color.

I arrived at Bierstadt Lake well before sunrise. I was quickly greeted by the Bierstadt Airfare, which to those who know, are the Mallards that will greet you along the shoreline shorty after you arrive. They will also swim around right in the reflection of the lake if its going to be a spectacular sunrise (this is of course not totally accurate!).

There were some nice clouds floating over Rocky but the wildfire smoke was still present. Sunrise itself was muted by clouds over the eastern plains of Colorado which has been another common occurrence this summer. Just before sunrise however, the high level clouds picked up a nice salmon hue due to the diffusion from the wildfire smoke. It wasn’t exactly the dramatic sunrise I was looking for but it was beautiful nonetheless.

I’ll be sure to updates and keep and eye on how things are progressing in the park going forward but either way you cut it, Rocky short and sweet summer is quickly coming to an end and fall is knocking at front door.

With that out of the way, hopefully atmospheric conditions will improve in the area and with some cooler weather and possible rain slated for Sunday, give aid to the larger wildfires burning in the state and bring us some must needed moisture. In what has been a very hot, dry and windy summer in Rocky Mountain National Park, some traditional mountain weather and rain would be welcome around these parts.

I’ll never get used to how short summers are on the alpine tundra. The speed that the changes occur are striking. A month ago the alpine tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park was carpeted with wildflowers and alpine sunflowers. Now its turning golden and red and many of the summer wildflowers are now past peak. This is just one of the penalties of wildfire smoke in the region. It takes an already painfully short but spectacular season in RMNP, and steals a few days or weeks away. Thats why at these elevations, you can never take time for granted or plan on returning another day. The time up here is always now and never later.

After a week on the coast of Oregon, It was back up to Rocky Mountain National Park this morning to see whats shaking. Sunrise looked like it had some good potential this morning with a possible lenticular type cloud forming along the east ridge of the continental divide. While lenticular clouds often give dramatic sunrises, they are caused high winds aloft, and more often than not high winds below which makes photographing RMNP more difficult.

Frankly, I just wanted to get back into Rocky and get a feel for where things are after a week away. I’m a creature of habit and even a few days away for my normal routine can feel like eons to me so the sooner I can get back in the flow the better.

On top of the high winds forecasted for this morning, we have also had a ton of wildfire smoke here on the Front Range of Colorado. Wildfire smoke makes it difficult to photograph in RMNP as it diffuses the light without any of the typical benefit of diffused light. The light can wind up being very flat, very harsh and make any image or iconic scene in Rocky Mountain National Park look like uncle Bob shot it with his polaroid camera back in 1978.

I find there is one exception where wildfire smoke can actually benefit some scenes and locations in Rocky. The one area where it ‘may’ help is backlighting. Backlit images, or images shot almost directly into the sun may help to bring out the layers between the sky and ridgelines. Furthermore it may help the color palette in that it either diffuses some subtle changes in color or may cause other colors such as reds to have even more pop.

As soon as I drove through the Beaver Meadows entrance station this morning I knew regardless of wildfire smoke that the possibility to photograph certain locations where going to be off the table. When I drove over the causeway on Lake Estes this morning, the lake surface was fairly smooth and it did not appear windy, once I passed through Beaver Meadows is was an Armageddon like scene quickly. The wind was howling, grasses and trees swaying and once out of the card the strong smell of wildfire smoke permeated the air. There was a nice cloud bank setup over the east side of the park so at least I had that going for me!

Back down to Rainbow Curve where the color on the eastern horizon of the Colorado High Plains was already turning red. The large rock pile and hill just west of Rainbow Curve provides a decent wind break so that one can often photograph and keep their tripod firmly planted on the ground to assure sharp images.

As the day dawned over Rocky Mountain National Park, it was apparent the smoke was thick, the wind was howling but we had some great color in the eastern skies the last about 20 minutes. The colored skies and wildfire smoke sifting and falling between the ridgelines helped to accentuate the layers over the mountains and foothills on the east side of Rocky and beyond. Overall, not a bad return but I’m really looking forward to having this entrenched layer of smoke clear out of the park. How about a rainy, foggy morning?