A few days ago I returned from what was by far the most interesting and unique trip I’ve taken in a long time. As many of you know, for the last few years, I’ve been taking an annual trip to photograph fall color. For the past five years I’ve gone east and decided to switch things up and go west this year.
My trip has by far produced the most unique collection of images I’ve ever shot in one time span and it’s going to make for a REALLY long blog post!! It was an aggressive trip with 2000 miles of driving in about 6.5 days but overall it was a tremendous experience!
Some of the photos below are available for purchase on the fine art section of our website:
http://www.arisingimages.com/fineart
Here was my 2000 mile loop:
9/26/2008 – Day 1
I flew from Detroit to Denver on an evening flight. I was able to fly out of the new Detroit North terminal. It seems to be very functional and “new” and a significant improvement over the old terminal, but overall not too exciting.
Once I arrived in Denver I drove to Estes Park which is at the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.
9/27/2008 – Day 2
I woke up really early (which you’ll notice will be a common theme on this trip) and headed into Rocky Mountain National Park and went and watched the sunrise over Bear Lake. Since I had arrived after dark last night, this was my first glimpse of the sun lighting up the golden aspen trees which was beautiful.
Driving back down into the valley I was able to catch some beautiful morning light off the nearby foothills.
There is an area in the park that is well known for having lots of Elk. Thankfully, what I read was correct and within a few minutes, I found myself within 50 ft of a huge one!
By around 9:30 in the morning, it was time to head out of the park because I had a long 7 hour drive up to South Dakota to go to Custer State Park for the Big Buffalo Roundup. Earlier in the year, we photographed a wedding for Sarah and Ethan out in Golden, CO. Ethan was raised in Custer State Park where his dad spent his career as a park ranger and helped start the tradition of the Buffalo Roundup. There are more buffalo in the park than what the park can sustain through the winter months so every year they round up the nearly 1500 buffalo and auction off the extra ones. This is also a time where they can be branded, tagged, vaccinated, etc. It’s an event that is an experience in the wild west where you get to watch cowboys on horseback chase down hundreds of buffalo and get them into a corral. Ethan and his dad helped get me connected with the right people so I was able to get my hands on a media pass to get a front row seat along with some other perks.
Anyway, so I got to the park around 4:30 pm and drove the 18 mile wildlife loop which reminded me of the time when Cheridy and I were driving through the game park in South Africa a few years ago. Anyway…Custer State Park is a very beautiful park with rolling hills and tall grass that blows in the wind.
This is one of my favorite photos from the park that shows off the simplicity.
During my stay I saw lots of buffalo, antelope, wild turkeys, and donkeys. This little guy was on the other side of a fence from me. I stuck my long zoom through the fence to get photos of him, and he just trotted right up to say hello.
That night I stayed with Ethan and Sarah at Ethan’s parent’s house nearby the park. I also got to meet Ethan’s friend Matt who is also a cowboy, there are a few photos of him later. We had a nice dinner and some good conversation around the dinner table.
9/28/2008 – Day 3
The next morning I got up well before sunrise and headed into the park to photograph morning light on Sylvan Lake which you might recognize as it was the set of one of the scene’s of National Treasure II with Nicolas Cage.
I then drove down the Needles highway which is a road that is an amazing feat of engineering that twists and turns it’s way through the park. I was able to create a beautiful image of the rock formations along the roadside. It was a great time to drive down the road. Since it was so early, there was no traffic on the road that is usually jammed with tourists.
I had to be at the park office by 8:00 am. As part of my media pass, I was given a tour of the buffalo herd by one of the park rangers. There were about 10 media people and 3 pickup trucks. We got to ride in the beds of the pickups as the rangers drove us through the park and right into the buffalo herd.
In this photo, we had driven up a hill to get a view looking down on the herd. You can see the other two trucks with photographers and videographers still shooting footage of the buffalo by their watering hole.
It was really neat seeing the tire tracks in the tall grass.
As we drove through the park, we saw lots of donkeys. Tell me this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen…seriously!!
One of the journalists in my truck was telling me that the donkeys will come right up to the cars and stick their heads in the windows looking for food. This image cracked me up!
After my driving tour was over, I drove over to the horse corrals and met up with Ethan and Matt where they were doing an orientation ride which is where the riders all meet one another and go out on a ride the day before the big event and are shown where they will be riding and what they will be doing. This was a great chance for me to get some cowboy photos!
First, just a few detail shots:
Here’s the horse Ethan will be riding…his name is Whiskey
I had Ethan and Matt do a few setup rides in areas where I could get some cool shots of them. Here’s Matt riding along the ridge of the nearby hill.
Here’s Ethan and Whiskey
This is Matt galloping at full speed.
Once it was time for them to have their prep meeting before the ride, I was hanging around waiting and ended up meeting a fellow photographer (Heather Kallhoff) and her friend Randy. Heather and I are both a part of the Digital Wedding Forum which is an online community of wedding photographers. It was pretty cool to have a connection with someone when on the other side of the country. Heather, Randy, and myself went out into the nearby hills and sat and waited for the group of cowboys and cowgirls to ride on by. We waited for a LONG time because unfortunately one of the men got a blood clot in his leg and had to be rushed to the hospital and everything was delayed. In the meantime the three of us had no idea what was going on and were sitting out in the hills waiting…and waiting…and waiting. While sitting there, I took this cool shot of the moody skies.
They eventually made it over near us.
Here’s another shot of Ethan. He spotted me taking pics and trotted over.
This is one of my all time favorite photos. I love seeing the cowboys riding off over the hills with the dramatic sky. This was shot with my infrared camera which helps bring out the drama in the sky.
After getting those photos, I took off and drove out of the park. I went to visit the Beautiful Rushmore Caves. That has to be the best advertised business as they had signs EVERYWHERE. They were open until 5:00 but when I got there at 4:30 with cameras in hand, I was told that the last tour had left at 4:00. I told the man that I had driven for over an hour to get there (which was true) and all I wanted to do was see the caves really quick. The man I was talking to happened to be Tom Hagen who is the owner of the caves. He ended up taking me on a private tour of the cave. He showed me every area along with a really cool room that most people don’t get to see as it’s fairly slippery and difficult to get into. Not only did he do all this, but then he didn’t charge me as he had already locked down the register for the day. I’ll be sending him some photos that he can hopefully use! Going into the caves was a really unique experience. They are some of the largest caves in the US and have some really cool stalactite formations. I asked Tom about all their signs and he said they have 82 billboards….wow!! He also told me that it’s quite a conversation piece to tell people that you own cave. I imagine that would lead to some puzzled looks!
Once I left the caves, I went to the nearby Mount Rushmore. I was a bit overwhelmed by how commercialized it is. The amount of parking structures there made me feel like I was at a mall. It was pretty crazy.
However, I was quite blown away as expected. The mountain carvings were exquisite and just amazing that they were able to do that out of rock using explosives.
The amount of detail is exquisite…there were even catch lights in the eyes which makes an eye look alive. How they did that…I have NO idea!!! Amazing!!
Seeing the faces of the past leaders of our country with all the flags waving put me in a quite patriotic mood.
It was near sundown and I headed back to the house for another enjoyable dinner with Ethan’s family.
9/28/2008 – Day 4
Roundup Day!!! Today was another ridiculously early morning. We woke up around 6:00 am, had breakfast and headed to the park. The roundup typically attracts 10,000-15,000 people and the park roads are not meant to sustain that much traffic. The round up happens halfway around the wildlife loop so you basically need to drive about 9 miles on a 2 lane twisty road with around 6,000 other cars depending on which entrance you came in. Thankfully Ethan new the back roads into the park that allowed us to skip the traffic. With a media pass, I had a great parking space and a front row spot which was fantastic. Here’s the media area with some of the photogs and videogs setup for the big event.
As we waited I had a fun time waiting with all the other media. I met people from the local ABC and NBC affiliates along with a lot of local journalists from Rapid City and some other South Dakota photographers including Lisa Houghton who is an amazing baby and kids photographer. Al Van Zee, a local news reporter shot this footage of the roundup. Ethan gets interviewed related to the buffalo that he helped chase down:
http://www.kevn.com/NewsStories.aspx?StoryID=12943
I love this shot of the lone cowboy waiting for everything to go down.
It was quite a site watching a thousand buffalo running across the field as the cowboys (and girls) were chasing them towards the corrals.
I skipped the part of the Roundup where they do the branding, etc. as I wasn’t interested in that from a photographic perspective. I knew I had a long drive back to Denver and I wanted to beat the 12,000 spectators out, so I headed out pretty quick. I drove the 7 hours back to Estes Park and headed back into Rocky Mountain National Park for the sunset. I drove the lesser-traveled Fall River Rd, which is a 10 mile twisty-turny dirt road that traverses the side of the mountain on the opposite side of the valley from The Grand Ridge Rd. which is the main highway through the park. Along Fall River Rd was a beautiful stop called the Alluvial Fan…a spectacular waterfall!!
I was just in time to start catching the beautiful evening light as it entered the valley.
I found a few tranquil scenes along Fall River Rd.
When I reached the mountain pass where Fall River Rd and Grand Ridge Rd. intersect, the sunset light was just starting to peak and I was in the right spot. Here’s a shot through the famous Rock Gap.
The light hitting the far away mountains was beautiful.
After a long day I started to head back into town to grab dinner but still managed to catch some beautiful images on the way down the mountain.
9/29/2008 – Day 5
Surprise…another stupidly early morning. My goal this morning was to catch first light at Emerald Lake which was a 1.8 mile uphill hike from the Bear Lake parking area. To catch first light, I had to start hiking while it was still dark. This was quite a challenge since it was so dark I couldn’t see much and I had no flashlight. The trail was pretty wide and within a few minutes my eyes adjusted and a bit of light started to creep in which helped things out. Unfortunately, the path was steeper than I expected and it took me too long to get there for the good light. By the time I was there, it already looked pretty bland…but yet still was a very peaceful place.
When I got there, I was so tired from having woken up at 5:00 am along with the previous early days and lots of driving. I was all alone out by the lake and leaned up against a rock and huddled away from the cold wind and took a nap. When I woke up, I spent some time looking for some smaller details which might be more interesting than the overall scene. My favorite of those was the color on the water which was twinkling just a few feet from me. The blue sky and golden reflection from the aspen trees created a beautiful image.
I also really liked these images of the trees.
While hiking back I met Stephen from StephenCarterPhotography.com and we chatted for a few minutes and he gave me a few tips on where to go.
On the way back down, the color and grandeur of the park really came through.
Once back to my car, I planned to head over to the west side of the park but before I left I noticed the diagonal lines formed by the different colored trees.
I once again headed over the continental divide via Trail Ridge Rd. but was less than impressed with the west side of the park.
It was time for the long drive towards Aspen. I found some beautiful scenes along the way. I loved seeing the horses grazing with the golden trees and bluish mountains behind them.
As I got close to I-70 around the Vail area, I realized that the last week of September to early October is truly the best time for fall color in Colorado. The mountain sides were on fire with golden aspen trees lit up by the sun.
One of the places that Stephen had told me to check out was a little ghost town called Ashcroft about 10 miles Southwest of Aspen. The drive out there had me stopping every few minutes to photograph the fun scenes.
Here’s a grove of aspen trees.
There was just yellow and gold EVERYWHERE!
The late afternoon sun lit up the hillside with the incredible mountain peaks in the distance.
When I arrived at Ashcroft I had missed most of the good light but was stll able to catch a few nice scenes. I was pleasantly surprised to find a place with nearly 10 buildings still standing. Walking through there made me wonder what life must have been like back then and it also made me feel incredibly blessed to not have to live in a log cabin!
Here are a few scenes from Ashcroft.
After that, it was time to head back to Aspen to have dinner and crash for the night.
Aspen was definitely not my favorite place and I looked forward to leaving.
9/30/2008 – Day 6
From a purely photographic perspective, this was the most unique, diverse, and productive day I’ve ever had in my entire life! As you’ll see below, I was able to see and capture an amazing amount of images.
I started the day catching the sunrise with a view of the Maroon Bells over the lake at the end of Maroon River Rd. about 10 miles outside of Aspen. It is probably one of the most photographed scenes in Colorado for good reason. There were lots of photographers lined up around the lake to photograph this spectacle of beauty.
Most of the photographers were so focused on the lake and the Maroon Bells that many missed the opportunity to turn around and capture the morning light that was unfolding behind them.
When I went to the ghost town in Ashcroft yesterday, the light wasn’t great and I knew the morning light would be better. I ended up driving back to photograph it again and see what I could capture. When I was driving back from South Dakota to Colorado I remember seeing a sign that said “Welcome to Colorful Colorado”. I remember thinking that that was a pretty lame motto and not very creative. However, driving the road to Ashcroft, I remember just looking around in awe while thinking how amazingly colorful Colorado is. So I guess the motto made sense after all.
It seemed like the entire hillsides were in peak color.
It was sometimes difficult to keep an eye out for the simple things as opposed to the grandness of it all. I noticed this simple log fence running alongside an aspen grove.
While in Ashcroft I got out my infrared camera to capture some of the amazing sunlight that was making the trees in the valley glow.
I also used the infrared camera to capture the front face of one of the old houses.
The old buildings framed by the golden aspen trees was quite a site!
Upon leaving Ashcroft, I drove back through Aspen and then over independence pass. The views across the valley were amazing.
While at a high elevation, I looked down into the valley and loved the abstract pattern that the water reflecting the sky was making. This had to be captured with a long lens to keep it a natural abstract image.
The cloudy skies added so much mood and drama, it was spectacular.
Once I made it back down into the valley, my eyes started getting droopy since it had already been such a long day. I pulled off the road and took a little nap. Once reenergized, I explored that area and took a few photos. I was feeling pretty lazy and didn’t feel like switching lenses off the infrared camera so I tried creating some images with that.
As I was sitting there, a little butterfly was having fun with a dandelion and let me get super close with a macro camera.
I drove through Twin Lakes and Leadville and I think my favorite things that I saw were the little symbols that represented a very different lifestyle than my own.
The next leg of my trip was a 3 hour drive down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. On an ordinary day, this would have been a pretty boring drive but I was lucky enough to have a stormy day with some of the most incredible skies I’ve ever seen.
While gone, I liked to check in with Cheridy and Mayz every time I had cell phone service. Since I was in a lot of rural areas, many areas did not have service. This next photo cracked me up because I was in the middle of NOWHERE and somehow had a great cell signal. I remember telling Cheridy that I was next to an old shack and some tumbleweeds and not much else.
The road itself was pretty long and desolate but the moody skies had me jumping out every few minutes.
This was the view out the front window:
Side window:
In the rearview mirror, that’s where the real drama was unfolding.
Once I turned down the final road that headed towards the park, the stormy skies were getting closer and intensifying. The infrared camera helped me to capture some of the drama.
Sunbeams were shooting through the clouds and lighting up the far away hills and mountains.
When I arrived at the sand dunes it was raining some of the biggest raindrops I’ve ever experienced. Looking in the rearview mirror, the storm was clearing towards the horizon and the afternoon light was creating all sorts of patterns in the sky.
Looking in the direction of the sand dunes, you could actually see it snowing on the mountain range behind the dunes. It was really neat to see.
Once the storm cleared, you could see the freshly snow capped peak
I took some shots of the dunes and with the Photoshop processing, they looked like a weird martian landscape.
As the storm was clearing the evening light flooded the area.
The shafts of sun coming through the clouds were lighting up different areas. At one point, a sunray hit me and I felt like I was in a spot light in an otherwise dark landscape. I took a self portrait:
Then the sun went down and the moody skies continued to dominate my attention.
This was the end of an amazing photographic day! I was tired and hungry and unfortunately there was no food anywhere for about 30 miles. Since I planned to be here for sunrise in the morning anyway, I decided to just eat some food out of my cooler and spent the rest of the evening looking at some of these fun images.
10/1/2008 – Day 7
This morning I of course had another really early day and spent the sunrise watching as the light created some abstract shapes on the sides of the dunes.
At one point a cloud was blocking the morning light from hitting the sand dunes but there seemed to be good light everywhere else. I was able to capture some intriguing scenes with the infrared camera.
After leaving the dunes I drove to Colorado Springs where I had a couple places to visit. Unfortunately both were tourist traps which left me less than thrilled.
The first place was Seven Falls which is a private park with a very commercialized waterfall that cascades in seven sections. I shot mostly close-ups to try to cut out the stairs and other man made obstructions.
After that, I went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings which is also a very commercialized Indian ruin. It took creative cropping to cut out the modern hand rails, the “watch your head” signs, and the descriptive plaques explaining what each room was for.
It was time to head back to Golden, CO to meet up with Ethan and Sarah. I was staying at their house before heading to the airport in the morning.
10/2/2008 – Day 8
Yet another early morning! I had to get up early to drive back to the airport for my morning flight. The stars were still out just as the morning light was starting to creep into the sky. Here you can see Orion in the top left.
Ethan and Sarah have an incredible view from the front of their home which overlooks the entire city of Denver.
Is anyone still reading? If so…I love you. Please leave a message and say hi!
Some of the images are available for sale in our fine art galleries for Colorado and South Dakota that can be found here:
http://www.arisingimages.com/fineart
