I’ve had a very productive fall color season up here in Rocky Mountain National Park even though the weather by layman’s standard has been for the most part bland. I’ve been eagerly keeping an eye on the weather report each day looking for signs of change. While the San Juan’s and the southern Colorado mountains got pounded with snow starting on Wednesday, things looked very promising around Rocky Mountain National Park for this weekend. A Winter Weather advisory was in affect and Rocky was anticipating between 5-10 inches of snow starting on Saturday morning. I was in the Park on both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday was exactly my kind of weather day. Light snow fell all day in Rocky Mountain. Even better was there was still a good amount of fall color amongst some of the Aspen trees. Saturday turned out to be a great day to photograph snow on Aspen trees and along the banks of streams and creeks that have yet to freeze over. I’ll post some of those images in the near future, but Sunday morning yielded another good sunrise image. I’ve photographed Longs Peak from upper Beaver Meadows many time. I’ve been lucky enough in the past to be able to shoot Longs Peak with fresh snow and Aspen trees in their full golden splendor.
Because of the dynamic weather conditions on Sunday, I was able to photograph Longs Peak and Autumn Aspens all covered in fresh snow as Saturday’s storm started was clearing out. Surprisingly, other than a large photography workshop group that showed up briefly to shoot this scene, there were very few other photographers present this morning to witness this awesome event. While the image is not unique and is a popular locations to photograph Longs Peak, I can say with certainty the conditions present on Sunday morning occur on occasions few and far between. Luckily, I was in the right place at the right time and have to say I’m glad I was able to capture this photograph because It’s unlikely the stars will align with the elements to allow for an image like this for some time.