Fall 2021 in SW Colorado
Day 1
The last week of September and the first week of October had been loosely circled on my calendar since this same time last year. I say loosely as I allowed for a bit of flexibility for seasonal shifting of the “Peak Leaf-peeping Season.” It is always a bit of a guess/gamble, but I ended up being pretty satisfied with the days that I chose to head out. Heck, even as I write this, the conditions are perfect to be out there. It is difficult not to be out there as well, but my honey-do-list is piling up and it needs to be prioritized as I ironically type this instead of working on it.
My first stop on my Fall tour was the Curved/Dancing Aspen. I met up with Ben Huseman of Benji’s Travel Photos and Bob Gojkovich of Bob Gojkovich Photography. We set-up in the morning at the Curved Aspen and hoped for the best. I had a shot in my mind that I’d been chasing for a couple of seasons. I envisioned a golden backdrop with glowing Aspen trunks in the foreground. That requires being on location when the leaves and the wind cooperate. Add to that, I wanted a sunburst in the image. This requires another bit of cooperation from Mother Nature as the clouds have to cooperate.
Behind The Scenes at the Curvey or Dancing Aspens (S21)
It was difficult to tell if the image that I had in my mind was going to come to fruition. Other than the clouds, everything was lining up nicely. “At worst, I was going to leave with a decent image,” I thought to myself. Then, it happened! With a little scrambling here and there and a bit of cussing the clouds that periodically blocked out the sun’s light, I managed to finally capture what I’d come for…!
Dancing Aspen (Vertical)
Dancing Aspen (Vertical)
Prints Available: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Nikon 14 - 24mm f/2.8
14mm | 1/6s | f/18 | ISO 100
Curved Aspen (Vertical)
Feeling as if I was walking on cloud nine, I set off for my next shooting location. I had no idea where that was, but that’s how I often like it. I just drift. This time, my drifting found me overlooking a small pond.
Reflections are my weakness, I’ll admit it. I love a good reflection and often seek them out. It, in my opinion, is difficult to beat what this pond has to offer!
Glasslike Reflections, My Favorite! (S21)
So often, well, ok…., always, Mother Nature has a lot to do with whether or not an area is “currently” shootable. On this morning’s visit to the small pond, (see above image) I wasn’t feeling it. So much was perfect, yet I found the sky a bit too boring. With that, I decided to press on, tho I kept my options open for a return should the skies change.
Moving on down the road to my next location found myself, once again, staring out at beautiful reflections. The water wasn’t quite as still, but the reflections were still quite eye-catching! The skies were also a bit more moody, which was nice.
Fall colors reflect as morning gives way to afternoon (S21)
The colors weren’t quite at their peak in many areas, but they sure were close enough! Along those lines, I’d rather be a bit early than late when it comes to chasing Fall colors.
Fall Colors Approach Their Peak In Southwest Colorado. (S21)
The Five-billion Star Hotel
She’s beginning to show her age, but my complaints are quite minimal. There’s something to be said about being able to drive to the location that you want to start your morning as opposed to worrying about reservations and having to account for pre-sunrise drive times. Being able to lay a full thermorest and sleeping bag in the back of the Five-Billion Star Hotel is definitely convenient. Heck, I’ve even fit two people, along with gear, for a month-long round-trip! Tho, with that being said, sadly, her days are numbered.
I like to venture out and find the roads that do not have a lot of traffic on them. Low traffic, seems to allow for a good build-up of colorful leaves, no complaints here.
The Smell Of The Leaves Decaying Fills The Air On A Backcountry Road. (S21)
A bit later on in the day, I said adios to Ben and Bob and ended up catching up with Jae Jarratt of Profound Elements Photography and Jamie Rogers of Captain Colorado Photography. We followed the quiet backroads for a while and soon found ourselves hearing the crashing of a waterfall in the not too far distance.
Fall Colors made it into “The Canyon.”
Thunderous Sounds Of Crashing Mystic Falls (S21)
Everything around seemed to be fighting for my attention, even the smaller plants covering the ground were showing off their beautiful Fall foliage.
Bio-Skittles (S21)
Taste The Rainbow (S21)
Wandering around a bit more, I ran across the remanence of a set of tracks from the days when a mining operation passed through this area. I had seen this area before and wondered what it might look like in Fall type conditions.
BTS Looking Out And Over An Old Mining Track (S21)
Day 2
Day one had me pretty excited. I even thought to myself, “If the trip is a bust after this, it was still worth it.” Turns out, there was much more left…
The Colors Were Nothing Short Of Breathtaking! (S21)
I spent much of Day Two wandering around in gloomy weather. There wasn’t much photography happening. (See above image) The irony is that the Fall colors really pop when the skies are overcast. On a cloudless day, it takes a bit of work to get the colors to pop as they are easily washed out by the sun. Finding the right mix is the goal. I’d definitely have to check back here later on in the trip.
The Sun Sets On Another Fine Fall CO Day! (S21)
I ended up spending a large part of the day just scouting around. Before I knew it, it was time to figure out where I was going to put up for the night and what I was going to shoot in the morning. This spot seemed nice. Fingers crossed that the clouds cooperated in the morning.
Day 3
Anxious. That is how I’d describe the morning as I anticipated Sunrise. The evening prior, I couldn’t pay for a glimpse of the mountains. Would this morning be more of the same? I sure hoped not.
Is That Sneffels Peak I see…!? (S21)
The clouds ended up being a lot more cooperative this morning than they were the evening prior. I never quite got “the image” that I had in mind, but that only means that I’ll have to come back again next year. ;-)
Sunrise at Mt. Sneffels
Prints: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 70 - 200mm f/2.8
78mm | 1/1250s | f/8 | ISO 800 x6 image pano
The clouds indeed were much more cooperative this morning and that only continued to get better as the sun got higher in the sky.
Sneffels Stands Tall Over The Fall Colors
Prints: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 70 - 200mm f/2.8
125mm | 1/1250s | f/8 | ISO 640
Sneffels Peak
The morning, while not perfect, was still spectacular! Fall photography doesn’t get much better than this!
The morning definitely started off well. Now, it was time to venture along as I was due to meet up with some friends in the Cimarron Valley. Wouldn’t you know it, getting to that meeting location would prove to be a bit more challenging than initially anticipated as distractions were everywhere!
BTS As We Head Into The Owl Creek Area. (S21)
We hadn’t really even made it to Owl Creek Pass and already the distractions began tugging at me. “Distractions,” read that as “Photography opportunities.” ;-) In the above image, we’d only initially set-up. It seemed as if the clouds were moving in a way that the cliffsides would get a bit of light. Only time would tell…
Approaching Owl Creek Pass
As we found our way up the Owl Creek Pass, we approached a spot that I definitely wanted to shoot, but the conditions were not good at all. Looking around, and being the amature meteorologist that I’m not, I decided that the conditions would improve and hanging around might work out into our favor. We all agreed and pulled over and began waiting. And, we waited. And, we waited some more. After passing rain-shower number five and hail-shower number three, the skies tilted towards clearing. It was time to get set-up! Meteorological guesswork = 2 for 2.
Rainbow On Owl Creek Pass (S21)
Things turned out even better than initially anticipated! In one composition, we ended up with rain, cloudy skies, sunny skies, Fall colors, and a nice little rainbow!
Owl Creek Rainbow
Prints: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 24 - 70mm f/2.8
45mm | 1/100s | f/11 | ISO 100
Rainbow on Owl Creek Pass
Prints: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 24 - 70mm f/2.8
45mm | 1/100s | f/11 | ISO 100
Owl Creek Rainbow Pano
Prints: Limited Edition
Mavic Pro 2
Moving on from the previous location proved to be difficult. Just as soon as I’d consider breaking composition, the conditions would change thereby drawing me in more. This scenery was rough. It got all in my eyes! Recovery might be a slow process. ;-) Please, don’t worry about me, tho. I’ll be ok! ;-)
The day quickly progressed and, before I knew it, it was time to find a place to shoot sunset. What better place than Deb’s Meadow, huh?
Awaiting Sunset From Deb’s Meadow. Ever See The Movie True Grit? (S21)
While shooting Chimney Rock from Deb’s Meadow, I got a bit curious. An idea for a future composition was eating at me. I’d have to do a bit of exploring, later.
The scene, while beautiful, never really materialized into something other than the typical sunset image you often see from this location. With that, it was time to move on.
Finally, we made it off of the main roads and ventured into the backroads. It was there that we set up camp and began dreaming of tomorrow.
Day 4
Day four had me thinking of reflections of Fall colors on calm water. The evening prior, We drove to a location that left me with a short hike into the beautiful little spot seen below. The water was perfectly still and the aspen, along with the surrounding walls, were simply begging to have their picture taken.
Awaiting Sunrise With Reflected Cimarron Rock Walls. (S21)
With my composition set-up, all there was left to do was wait. Well, I s’pose along with waiting I also had to hope that the breeze stayed calm so the reflections stayed decent. It wasn’t long before the wait was over and the sun made its grand entrance.
Cimarron Sunburst
Prints: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 24 - 70mm f/2.8
45mm | 1/100s | f/11 | ISO 100
I was contacted by Josy Palmer and was asked if she could paint the Cimarron Sunburst image. I was truly honored at the request and instantly excited to see the results. A snapshot of her painting is below. I think she did great! :-)
Painting by Josy Devienne Palmer
The morning was quite frosty, but well worth it, especially with views like the one above. Meeting fellow photographers, who are crazy enough to get up before the crack of a crisp dawn and hike into a location in order to freeze that particular moment for a lifetime, was also nice. One last additional bonus, I got to actually meet a few people who I’ve previously only “met” online. :-)
Frosty Morning’s Make For A Great Start To The Day! (S21)
After sunrise, we headed into town to get some “real” food, refresh, and maybe get a bit of laptop work in. While there, we stopped back by the Dallas Divide Overlook. The white puffy clouds drew me in like a moth to a flame. The conditions were much better than the gloomy visit prior, yet the sun was still a bit high for my liking. We shot a bit, ate lunch, and then it was time to move on; or so I thought.
The Dead Battery
The Five-Billion Star Hotel wouldn’t start. I’d thought I sensed a bit of hesitation in it earlier in the morning, but I disregarded it. Tho, looking back, I’m not sure there was much else I could do other than disregard it as we weren’t in an area that had such services on a weekend morning.
I, however, “came prepared” for such an occasion. I had one of those small little booster packs that you can jump your vehicle with. I hooked it up and went to start the ride; nothing. The starter wouldn’t even try. With the modern tech in vehicles these days, if there isn’t enough juice to start, it isn’t even going to try. Well, on to plan-b. Now, I just had to figure out what plan-b was.
Jae pulled his truck up and attempted to jump my ride. Nothing. It wasn’t looking good for the ole’ battery. Ironically, I’d had a battery go dead on me once before while out shooting, only that time I was way back in the backcountry in an old ghost town called Animas Forks. This time seemed much better, but with mountain towns being small as they are, batteries proved to be hard to find.
There was no service station open. There were no parts stores open within an hour’s drive radius. Luckily, believe it or not, we found a few select batteries in the back of the hardware store in Ridgeway, Co. Now, there wasn’t much info in the store as to what vehicle these batteries were good for, but with a bit of interweb browsing, we picked one, grabbed a few select tools, which I’d overlooked when “preparing” for maintenance problems, and headed out the door to my waiting vehicle miles away.
The swap went rather uneventful once a kind bystander was nice enough to let me borrow an open-end wrench so that I could actually remove my battery. Yeah, the tools that I bought were pretty much useless as the sockets weren’t deep enough. The tools that I brought were useless too as, well, I didn’t bring any! Ugh. Not only did I borrow the open-end wrench, but also the battery post cleaner and the dielectric grease. Thank you, Arlan! I now have a small toolkit in my vehicle topper for when this happens again. :-)
After having my fill of the Overlook, fixing the battery issue, and saying adios to my friends, I decided I wanted a closer look at Ole’ Sneffels; back to the Beaver Pond I went.
Exploring the Uncompahgre National Forest
I’d shot this area previously on this trip, but conditions weren’t the greatest. There was no guarantee that they’d be great this time wither, but you can’t shoot the shot if you aren’t there!
BTS Reflecting Upon Sneffels (S21)
The water down at the pond was about as smooth as one could ask for from running water. I was pleasantly surprised and happy to sit down and await sunset.
The Dam Was Uncomfortable, The Cushion Was Not. (S21)
I was glad that I brought along a seat cushion, something I’ve never done before. This wouldn’t be the last time that I ended up getting this thing out on this trip.
Sneffels’ Reflection
Prints: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Nikon 24 - 70mm f/2.8
24mm | 1/13s | f/18 | ISO 160
The sunset shoot went “okay.” Things were actually setting up to be award-winning until one little cloud got between Sneffels and the horizon. Oh well, better luck next time, huh!?
I wrapped up the evening’s shoot and began pondering the morning’s. “Why not try here again,” I thought to myself. With that, I headed back to The Five-Billion Star Hotel. It was then that I bumped into Remo. He was camped next to me and had cooked up a bunch of food for the photographers in the area. Now, I’ve met a lot of cool people in my travels, but Remo is at the top of the list of them! Thanks for the hospitality, Remo! Side note: Not only is Remo a great host, but he is a great photographer as well…! Check out his work here: Instagram: @remo_daut and Facebook: Remo Daut
Day 5
Day five got off to a rocky start. I had two strikes against me. One, it was breezy and I wanted reflections on water. Two, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. How boring!? Would I see my third strike? I half expected to fall into the pond to complete the strikeout.
A Much Choppier Pond This Morning (S21)
Well, there’d be no award-winning photography from this morning’s location with this particular morning’s conditions, so I set my sights on the evening’s sunset. I had a lot of exploring to do between now and then.
My goal was to reshoot a location that I’d previously shot in the morning, the Cimarron Sunburst image. My thoughts were that the wall might warm up a bit under the setting sun. With that, I headed in that direction. Between now and then, there was a place that I wanted to investigate. I wanted a bird’s eye view of Chimney Rock.
Chimney Rock (S21)
This hike was NOT easy. It wasn’t even enjoyable. It was merely, “I’ve got a goal and this mountain is in my way.”
Colors Of Fall (S21)
Once my heart rate came back down to Earth, things improved. I even ended up bumping into a couple of other dedicated photographers. Ironically, one of them was from my town of Monument/Palmer Lake. Small world!
This was only meant to be a scouting trip. As previously mentioned, I actually had plans to shoot elsewhere for sunset, but with the amount of effort that it took to get to this location, and with conditions being what they were, I decided I’d stay here and shoot sunset. It was 1330; only ~six hours to wait. Great! Glad I had that inflatable seat cushion with me!
The sunset was out of frame but surely wasn’t a disappointment as it beamed off of Chimney Rock in a nice warm glow!
Chimney All A-glow
Prints Available: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 24 - 70mm f/2.8
102mm | 1/160s | f/5.6 | ISO 800
A bit earlier in the day, I shot the image below. The scenery was amazing! I almost broke my neck by turning my head this way and that as the scene kept changing due to the constant swing of the lighting conditions. It was spectacular!
Chimney Rock and the Colorado Fall
Prints Available: Limited Edition
Nikon D750 | Tamron 24 - 70mm f2.8
52mm | 1/50s | f/18 | ISO 100
This was an epic end to what started out as a blah day…!
Day 6
Day Six, my last day, of which I’d only be shooting the morning and then I’d make the long journey home. Initially, there were three locations that I wanted to shoot. With last days on the road being what they are, that quickly dwindled down to two locations. The first was sunrise on Crystal Lake.
BTS at Sunrise on Crystal Lake. (S21)
While not perfectly still, the water wasn’t far from it. This was, by far, the easiest location I’d shot all trip. I even debated whether or not I was going to shoot it. But, I had the time and it was very near my next shooting location, so… why not?
A Crystal Pano
Nikon D750 | Tamron 24 - 70mm f/2.8
70mm | f/11 | 0.5s | ISO 100
After leaving Crystal Lake, I headed down the road and got the drone out. A perfect ending to a great trip!
Curves Ahead
Prints Available: Limited Edition
Mavic Pro 2 | ~10mm | f/3.5 | 1/50s | ISO 100
This trip had a bit of everything in it. I got to see some of Colorado’s best Fall scenery with some great friends. I even got to meet some new friends either via photography, camp conversations, or broken-down vehicles.
Every Autumn I look forward to getting out and capturing the colors of the changing of the seasons. I am sure 2022 will be no different. See you out there!
