While we are waiting for winter to actually arrive in Rocky Mountain National Park, the mild and dry weather that has been prevalent most of the late fall has created some interesting opportunities and circumstances for photographers. Normally snow covered trails, still free of snow and great for hiking, lakes and streams flowing and open or mostly open, and even some subtle signs of fall remaining in a few sheltered nooks in Rocky.
It’s been fun and interesting to take advantage of what has been such a mild late fall in RMNP, but its also been a little strange. Late fall in Rocky is known for a couple of things. If we dont have snow, most everything is brown, we can have some of our most dramatic and brilliant sunrise and sunsets, and the wind really likes to turn it up a notch or two which is saying something in an already windy locale.
I was out at the end of last week hoping for a dramatic sunrise that didn’t materialize at Bear Lake. I was trying to take advantage of the combination of only a partially frozen Bear Lake and the possibility of a really fiery sunrise and dramatic sky. That didn’t materialize this one particular morning in the park, but it left me to wander around the shores of Bear Lake making images of the ice, grasses and changes all subtly and slowly taking place this year.
Rocky Mountain National Park’s changes in seasons happen fast. Often, an early season cold snap and blizzard will cover the park with snow and freeze over most of the lakes by mid October. This year that didn’t happen so we get this odd combination of mild weather and slow changes to the landscape. Water is flowing, some grasses are still green, foliage sticks around much longer than it should and this all creates opportunities to observe and photograph these slow changes in a manner that doesn’t usually present itself as such.
By the end of this week, major changes to the weather pattern appear on their way and our first really cold system of the year appears as if it will settle over RMNP. I would expect business as usual in the park shortly, so this late season walk around Bear Lake was an enjoyable change of pace. That being said, snow covered mountains and winter landscapes are going to be just as welcome to this photographer when they make their long due appearance shortly.