On the east side, the portion of US 36 from the Beaver Meadows entry station to Deer Ridge Jct is now open. The caveat here being that the construction project to improve pullouts and repave the road is still ongoing. This project was to be completed in September but still has a small portion of the road to complete.
Bear Lake Road remains closed so the most popular part of the park is still inaccessible and Trail Ridge Road is closed at Many Parks Curve for what I have to believe will be the remainder of the season even though NPS still is calling it a temporary closure.
Regardless of the fact that its both now the brown season and many parts of Rocky remain inaccessible its still fun to get back out in the grove of things and kick the rust off the cameras. The weather remains very moderate and the pattern other than for high winds has remained tame for the most part.
I’ve been using this time to work on some other projects and look to find locations and compositions I’ve previously not photographed prior. While I’ve scouted out this location awhile back, this morning the skies and sunrise looked like it might be a good time to revisit this composition in Lower Beaver Meadows now that the road has reopened and access is a little easier.
I’m a sucker for twisted and tortured trees and given the fact that the one has very limited options with the restricted access in the park, I was happy to hike out to this spot and enjoy the colorful sunrise with this ‘loner’. Sometimes having fewer options is more preferable to having more after all.