Thawed lakes, wildflowers, green grasses, pond lilies. These are the things we can start looking forward too in a few more weeks in Rocky Mountain National Park. Were still not quite there yet and I’d say we are about a week or two behind our usual spring weather.

For example I have images in my files from last May 4th with aspen leafed out in Moraine Park. As of today the aspens in Moraine Park have just started to leaf out. Even so we have had a warm week of weather and this morning felt like the most summer, late spring day yet.

Sunrise looked very promising this morning and the winds were very calm when I arrived in Estes. Mild weather, a nice set of clouds hanging over the continental divide and the east of RMNP and I was ready to get out on the trail and get somewhere in the backcountry for sunrise.

One of my favorite early season locations in Rocky Mountain National Park is always Cub Lake. Cub Lake is at a lower elevation than many of the other lakes in Rocky so it’s thaws early and the trail up to Cub is free of snow much earlier than say the trails emanating from the Bear Lake trailhead. The hike up to Cub Lake is a great early season hike to get your trail legs back and get you back in the flow.

Once Cub Lake has thawed it also has a beautiful vantage point of Stones Peak reflecting in it’s waters if the winds cooperate. When I arrived this morning the wind was starting to pickup but the surface of Cub Lake remained smooth for the first 1/2 hour on sunrise. Sunrise didn’t pop like I had hoped it would be the clouds did take on some pink and purple hues and Stones Peak did catch the glow of sunrise.

Overall it was just about a perfect morning in RMNP. Cub Lake was placid at sunrise, beautiful clouds hung over the peaks of Rocky, and the trail is now free of snow. Were still a ways off from summer but this mornings hike into to Cub Lake felt like a summer morning in RMNP.

It spring in Rocky?. Thats a question I get from many of my photography tour and workshop clients when discussing particulars before heading out in the field. Photography workshop and tour clients are often surprised when scheduling in May to find the weather in Rocky Mountain National Park may be just as likely to be similar to a February day then a warm spring day.

May in Rocky Mountain National Park is an interesting month. It’s a transitional month in the park but that transition in not one from spring towards summer, it’s really more of a tug of war between winter holding on and spring attempting to get a foothold. Oftentimes that struggle between winter and spring seems like a 1 step forward, 2 step back battle with winter often appearing to gain the upper hand.

Late spring in RMNP can feel more like winter, but the dynamic and unsettled weather we get in Rocky in May can lead to some amazing conditions for photographers. Truth be told some of my best winter have been created in May on account of the rough and tumble weather patterns that frequent Rocky and the Front Range of Colorado this time of year.

While some of my favorite images have been captured this time of year, May is also the month that I see the most cancelation from photography tour and workshop clients on account of the weather. I understand my clients concerns with the weather combined with the cost and time involved in getting to Rocky and hiring a photography guide to show them around. I’ll analyze the weather and do my best to provide an straight forward assessment of what potential we may have.

Trying to forecast the weather conditions can be difficult on most days, but attempting to convince a hesitant client that we have a 20% chance of getting epic conditions but an 80% chance of getting skunked can be a difficult sell.

On account of the snow and unsettled weather in Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday, I had my client for that morning cancel and reschedule for later in the spring when the weather hopefully cooperates a little better. While one of my clients rescheduled, another longtime client of mine was all in on taking a chance with the weather.

This client requests that I give them a heads up whenever there is potential for good or great conditions. Because this client has hired my services well over a dozen times previously, we have a very good understanding of what the expectations are when the weather looks dynamic. They understand that there is a good chance conditions wont cooperate while at the sometime understanding that in order to photograph in jaw dropping conditions, one must weigh the risk reward scenario.

I’ve had more exceptional conditions with this client than not but we’ve had a few days in the field that did not materialize quite like we expected. With that said, this client trusts my assessments in the field and greatly enjoys the opportunity to get out when conditions might be rough but extremely rewarding. Taking a chance on the conditions and yesterday and trusting on my assessment my client was rewarded with some spectacular May conditions and came away with some of their best Colorado winter portfolio images. As I always like to tell my clients, ‘bad weather makes for great photography’.

Rocky’s weather at the back end of April and early May never leaves a dull moment. Warm days, early wildflowers and blizzards can be commonplace. In fact, all these can happen within a few hours of each other in Rocky Mountain National Park during the springtime.

The end of April and the start of May has lived up to the hype that typically comes with springtime weather in Rocky Mountain National Park. While its been cold and rainy down here in the lower elevations of Colorado’s Front Range, Rocky has been getting good amounts of fresh snow. Even with the snow and unsettled weather, the past few mornings in Rocky have yielded some great moments of light intertwined with the rain and snow.

Monday snow started falling in the park by mid morning. It continued throughout the day and by the time it stopped early on Tuesday morning over a foot of fresh snow had fallen on Rocky.

More snow was scheduled to fall later on Tuesday in RMNP and the weather forecasts looked like there may be some break in the cloud cover or a possibility of getting above the cloud layer or inversion.

Inversions being when of my favorite type of conditions to photograph in, I was not going to let the opportunity to possibly catch a break in the cloud cover pass my by after lots of fresh powder had fallen on the park.

Leaving my house early in the morning for Rocky, the snow was still falling at a pretty good clip but predicted to stop about an hour before sunrise. One of my main concerns on a morning after a heavy snow is the conditions of the roads in Rocky. While the park service does and excellent job keeping the roads of Rocky Mountain National Park in great shape, they don’t plow roads from 7:00 PM until 7:00 AM.

This means one of two scenarios are likely to occur. Either the rangers are going to close the gates and access to the park until the roads can be made safe, or you are going to arrive to find unplowed roads and the need to make first tracks to your destination.

I arrived to find the second scenario had occurred. The park and gates remained open over night but the roads in Rocky had 12-14 inches of unplowed fresh snow on them. While I drive a four wheel drive vehicle its important to note that you are on your own when you decide to head into the park in these conditions this early in the morning.

I’ve got a good amount of experience driving in these types of conditions and I know the limitations of my vehicles. That being said I’m always prepared to get stuck or turn around if conditions dictate. If you get stuck at this time of day in the deep snow you will have to wait hours before the park service is able to get the plows to your vehicle and clear the roadways. Keep in mind that if you choose to enter the park in these conditions and you do get stuck, you will be a low priority on the grand scale of park service operations.

I headed into the park plowing through the bumper deep snow on my truck. The cloud layer was low and I kept heading up Trail Ridge Road with the hope that I would be able to avoid getting stuck in the snow and break above the cloud layer before I hit the seasonal road closure at Many Parks Curve. Shortly after Deer Jct. I broke through the cloud and could see Longs Peak glimmering in the distance.

Things looked promising as long as I could continue up the road to Many Parks without getting stuck. Selfishly, I always figure that if I get stuck I hope its at least in a location that will still yield a good vantage point. Its also important to remember that while there may be 12 inches of snow at the Beaver Meadows Entrance station, there could easily be 6 inches more snow by the time one reaches Hidden Valley.

Finally I arrived at the road closure at Many Parks Curve and turned around to head back to the overlook. Longs Peak was still towering high above the clouds and inversion that covered Horseshoe Park, Upper Beaver Meadows and Moraine Park below. I go my camera setup and waited for the sun to clear the lower cloud layer blanketing the Front Range below. Shortly after sunrise the sun rose above the cloud layer and 14,259 ft Longs Peak and The Diamond glowed regally in the early morning light and clouds.

All in all it was a typical late spring morning in Rocky Mountain National Park that resulted in some spectacular conditions for photography. With some help from the sun and a little bit of white knuckle driving behind me, it was the kind of spring morning in RMNP that I won’t soon forget.

I’ve been back on the east coast for the past week helping my 78 year old mother who had a fall early last week and injured herself. While its been great getting to spend a lot of time with mom, watching her lose her mobility and independence is difficult. So for the past week I’ve been helping getting my mom settled and have not been able to spend most mornings up in Rocky photographing from some spectacular vantage point.

You realize quickly how much of ones daily routine is taken for granted. Much of this routine that makes up one’s day seems to happen as involuntarily as a heartbeat. You go about your routines until something disrupts them.

The question then becomes how do you adjust when your routine is disrupted?. Obviously this is a good question to ponder when thinking about one’s daily routines, but it also is something I’ve thought about quite a bit as a landscape photographer.

I’m a creature of habit. I LOVE my routines. They help me achieve my goals, keeps me stable and has allowed me to create and expand my photography portfolio by embracing and enjoying the entire process of landscape photography. I enjoy every part that goes into working as a landscape photographer, much of which many might fight mundane.

I enjoy waking up at 12:30 AM in the summer to start my day so I can be tarn side as the sun rises over the mountain peak. Working out before leaving for the park is something I look forward to each night before going to bed. Many of these routines make my wife think I’m crazy but embracing the process and creating routines have allowed me to consistently create new work by allowing me to consistently make time to be out in the field behind the camera.

Watching my mom struggle this week has really helped to reinforce who much I enjoy my routines but even more importantly value independence. I’m always attempting to be more mindful, but it’s even more important to value every opportunity one has. When it comes to photographing Rocky Mountain National Park, I’m lucky enough to get many opportunities. What I’m still learning each day is just how important it is to value and embrace and be thankful for each one of them. It may be routine for me to photograph Rocky, but its certainly not a given.

Spend more than a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park and you will certainly meet our good friend the wind. Wind comes with the territory here in Colorado and the higher you venture in the park the more intense it is.

Wind is common in early spring as fronts move through the state. For the most part wind makes photography in RMNP very challenging. A tripod, high shutter speed and lots of might help to allow for a few sharp frames in between the gusts that can be hurricane force on some mornings. As much of a nuisance that wind can be in Rocky Mountain National Park it can also be accompanied by some dramatic clouds and light.

Yesterday (Sunday) was one of those kinds of mornings where there were lots of nice clouds hanging over Rocky, mostly on account of the wind stirring up the atmosphere. I’m always a bit reluctant on these windy days to go out and shoot. The lighting may be great but nothing is worse than finding all or nearly all of your images suffer from motion blur on account of the wind. That being said photographing in the wind in Rocky comes with the territory and if you want to spend time photographing RMNP you will have to deal with it one way or another.

My strategy on windy days is to find areas that have some shelter from the wind. Often this means stick to the lower elevations of the park as the winds tend to be more moderate and there are often groves of trees or rocks one can use to shield the wind.

With the wind howling in the park and gusts near 30 MPH I settled on Upper Beaver Meadows to setup. Lots of trees to duck behind and Otis, Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain had some amazing wind driven clouds streaking over them.

With about a 15% success rate as far as sharp images go I did manage enough sharp frames to make the morning worthwhile. Overall the wind was a pain but the lighting and clouds on the divide were more than worth the temporary nuisance that accompanied the wind on this beautiful morning.

New new image from this morning from Rocky. ‘Big Bertha’ aka my truck is in the shop getting a new fuel pump so I’m stuck here in the office for a few days watching sunrise through the Estes Park web cams. I figured its better to take care of that whining fuel pump now then up stuck somewhere or losing ‘Bertha’ for a few days during prime summer photography and photo tour season in Rocky Mountain National Park.

With another April blizzard up us what better time to drop off the truck for a few days and to attend some administrative work while the rain, snow and wind make photography difficult.

I did manage to get out yesterday morning before dropping the truck off at the shop. Sunrise looked promising the night before so I made sure to schedule the drop off on Tuesday. I figured with all the nasty weather moving through state it may be a few days before things get interesting again in Rocky for us photographers.

In typical Colorado spring fashion it was about 80 degrees here in the Denver area yesterday. Today it’s raining and snowing and temps are in the high 30’s. For the most part if we have warmer than average temperatures here on the east side of Colorado’s Front Range it means Rocky Mountain National Park is going to be windy due to westerly or down-sloping winds. This also usually means that higher level lenticular clouds may form just east of the mountain peaks.

That was the case yesterday morning in RMNP. Lots of great clouds in the sky to the east and a nice small break on the eastern horizon to illuminate the skies and mountain peaks for a short amount of time at sunrise.

I focused myself on the Mummy Range as that looked like it would have the most color based on the clouds I could observe before sunrise. Also due to the fact that it was very windy in Estes Park, I figured heading high up Bear Lake Road would just result in lots blurry images for a wind blown camera.

The Mummy Range turned out to have some very nice color though just to the east and south of Rocky the skies really popped. While my main composition was of Ypsilon, and Fairchild I did take advantage of the beautiful color over Mummy Mountain. Because of the orientation of Mummy Mountain its one of the more difficult peaks to photograph in Rocky as it often does not have direct lighting and is in the shadow of other peaks. The orange and red skies over it yesterday worked well to highlight this awesome piece of granite.

Hopefully by the end of the week I have both my truck back and we are able to capture some post snow images. Winds will remain high in RMNP through the middle of the week so its likely much of the snow will be blown off the pines as is often the case. Regardless, I’m looking forward to getting ‘Big Bertha’ back as well as getting back out into the field after this latest storm moves eastward.

It was a beautiful spring morning in Rocky Mountain National Park today. The temperature was mild and our bitter nemesis the wind even laid down just before sunrise allowing the silence to reveal the chirps of birds and the howls of coyotes welcoming in the new day.

My options were limited this morning as clouds covered most of the peaks in the park just before sunrise. On mornings like these where a ‘mountain blanket’ cloud is covering most of the divide, the sunrise can be great on the continental divide but you may not see any of the snow covered peaks. I call it a ‘mountain blanket’ cloud because unlike a mountain wave cloud that forms high above the peaks, this kind of cloud essentially covers the peaks like a blanket.

Longs Peak was covered, Hallett Peak was covered, Ypsilon Mountain was mostly covered. While Stones Peak had clouds around it, it was mostly free of clouds prior to sunrise. Because of this I decided to setup at one of the iconic, oft photographed locations in Moraine Park along the Big Thompson River. This is both a beautiful spot and one in which the water is now free from ice and flowing free.

Each year when the thaw out after winter starts to set in and water becomes free of ice I get excited. Not only because of the warmer weather on its way to Rocky Mountain National Park but because moving and open water creates a dynamic scene and allows for reflections to capture the warm morning light.

More importantly its exciting to watch the thaw march upward as its starts in the lower elevations of RMNP and makes it’s way higher with each passing day. It wont be long know before some of the higher lakes start to break free from ice and start to open. Exciting times ahead for photographers and summer season approaching quickly now.