Tag: Trail Ridge Road

Rolling Over To The West Side Of Rocky

With Trail Ridge Road open for the season again, I’m going to end up spending a decent amount of time photographing on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. This morning, I headed over to the Kawuneeche Valley to photography this locations. It’s only a few weeks before the water recedes and the grasses grow so high as to block out the reflection of Baker Mountain so this morning seemed like as good a morning as any to photograph this location. Technical Details: Nikon Z7II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 S lens

Once Trail Ride Road opens for the season, it feels like you get access to an entirely new national park. The west side of Rocky Mountain National Park feels a lot different than the east side. It’s significantly colder, wetter and to me at least always feels a little more primal than the east side. Wildlife abounds, lakes, streams and forest are teeming on this side of the park.

While I try to visit and photograph a variety of locations in Rocky, year after year one will often find themselves in the same or similar locations. Often, many of these locations are best photographed at certain times of year and thus, you tend to take advantage of the conditions and end up in certain areas more often than not.

This location in the Kawuneeche Valley is just one of those locations. With the Colorado River overflowing with snowmelt, this meadow floods and this small pond acts as a perfect spot to photograph Baker Mountain reflecting above the valley. This spot also almost always has a handful or more of Moose milling around. A month from now, much of this water will have receded and the grasses grown so high that a reflection is no longer possible or mostly obscured.

So it has become a tradition of sorts to spend more than a few mornings in the Kawuneeche Valley on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park photographing the overflowing Colorado River before it quickly recedes. It’s also a nice break from the east side of the park where I easily spend 70% of my time, especially during the winter months once Trail Ridge closes for the seasons.

After photographing the Kawuneeche Valley, I headed into Grand Lake to see whats going on in town this season. I was walking along the beach and wandered over to the town dock where I took this photo of the sun hitting the dock and lighting the lime green aspen trees in the background that had just leafed out. Baldly looking as regal as ever in the background with a mostly calm Grand Lake looking as beautiful as ever. Technical Details: Nikon Z7II, Nikkor 24-120mm F4 S lens

After hanging out on the west side, I took a ride into Grand Lake just to see how things look. Grand Lake is my favorite town in all of Colorado, and spending a little time along the shore drinking a coffee on a cool morning is one of life’s joys. Just as I arrived at the beach, the sun rose above the ridge and over the North Inlet and illuminated the town dock. The aspens in background have just leafed out and are a brilliant green, especially when side lit like this morning.

So I’ll be spending a decent amount of time the next few weeks exploring and photographing the west side of RMNP. Of course this time of year I alway joke that I wish I could be in about ten locations at any given time and more often than not I’m going to try to be where I think the best light is. Hopefully, a few mornings that light is over on the west side!.

First Run Over Trail Ridge Road

I finally was able to make my first run of the seaons over Trail Ridge Road yesterday. As always, it never dissapoints. While it was both windy, cold and snow, I was able to capture some drop under light hitting Specimen Mountain and the Never Summers Range at sunrise from Medicine Bow Curve. The Poudre River below while flowing well, still has lots more snow to melt. Technical Details: Nikon Z7II-Nikkor 24-120mm F4 S lens

It’s that time of year already in Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road finally opened for the season on the afternoon of May 31st. One of the later opening dates from my recollection in recent memory. With Trail Ridge Road finally open for the season (The Alpine Visitor Center and Store are still closed as of this writing), it’s unofficially the start to the summer season in RMNP which means access and opportunities for photography greatly improve.

When Trail Ridge reopens for the season its like seeing an old friend after a long absence. Over the course of the long, snowy, windy and cold winter the landscape, mountains and wildlife that live in these high alpine zones continue on with very little human interaction. But with the opening of Trail Ridge Road, its like a window or door to the park has been opened, welcoming visitors to Rocky Mountain National park with open arms and the feeling or renewal or rebirth.

While there is still a lot of snow to be found in both the high country of Rocky Mountain National Park and pretty much any location over 10,000 ft after what was a healthy winter of snow and precipitation, this harsh and unforgiving environment will move quickly now to melt away the snow, turn the alpine tundra from brown to a vibrant green and cover the ridges with wildflowers of all varieties. In as little as a month or so from now, most of the snow will be gone, the grasses green, the alpine tarns unthawed and free of ice and snow and alpine sunflowers will be budding up on the tundra.

I’ve been busy photographing many of the lime green aspen trees that just look beautiful right now between 9000 and 9500 ft. There is a short window with the aspens before they turn a darker green so I’ve been taking advantage of this short window which has prevented me for heading up and over Trail Ridge Road since in opened for the season.

Yesterday was my first of what will be many runs up and over Trail Ridge Road until it’s closed for the season sometime in late September or October or in the even of a really warm and dry fall possibly November.

In typically Trail Ridge and Rocky Mountain National Park fashion, the early season weather over Trail Ridge did not disappoint. The wind was howling at 25-30 mph, rain and snow were falling periodically and lots of low hanging clouds hugged the hillsides and mountaintops. ‘What could be more perfect than this?’ I thought as I headed over Milner Pass with the idea of heading down the Kawuneeche Valley or possibly even up the East Inlet.

Rain and snow altered my plans and I looked for a location where I might get some drop under light and sun once the sunrise occurred around 5:30 AM. I settled on Medicine Bow Curve as waited in the cold and spitting snow as Specimen Mountain and the Never Summer Range were covered in both dappled sunlight and snow showers at daybreak. The headwaters of the Poudre River below me still covered with lots of snow and the tundra brown from a long winter still had the making of a landscape that couldn’t be more representative of the high country of Rocky Mountain National Park in late spring.

While it was cold, windy and snowy, as I triggered the shutter on my camera, I couldn’t feel more excited and thankful for it to be the summer season, one that always starts with great excitement, anticipation and hope for a few months of great adventures, experiences and photography.