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A landscape photographer's tour
Keith's travels in Colorado - April-May 2006
In 2004 Keith first took his then fairly new Canon 1Ds on a driving tour round the Rockies in the USA. This photo-diary covers a driving trip around Colorado in April/May 2006.
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This collection has been re-written to make it easier to follow than the original (big) web page. On my return to the UK , I wrote a more technical article about the photographic aspects as a follow up to my original "Keith's first all digital visit to the Rockies"
There are other photo travel diaries covering trips to:
Washington and Oregon in September/October 2007 and California/Oregon in April/May 2007
Note for visitors from Colorado - I had a great time, thanks! I do really like the place :-)
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Back to Denver
At last it's time to head back to Denver to get a flight to Chicago and then back to London. I left the Fairplay hotel pretty early and headed south towards Hartsel on CO-9. There I turned East on US 24 towards Colorado Springs. This was the route where I first headed into the mountains a couple of years ago, on my first trip to Colorado.
The long straight road heads towards Wilkerson Pass.
It's the place I took a similar photo, but with much better clouds.. (picture in gallery)
Last time it was cold, cloudy and icy up on the pass, with frost and rime coating the trees. I wasn't expecting to see the pass with its own bit of cloud this time, but I was greeted with a particularly stunning view of low sunlight shining through wisps of fog/cloud.
I took quite a few shots here and have just selected one to give an idea of what it was like. I've also included a detail view to give a better idea of the effect
Rime and mist
After a mighty US breakfast (it's 5pm now and I'm only just feeling a bit hungry), I went to the Starbucks in Woodhouse Park, where they had free wireless access. A bit easier than out at Fairplay - someone at the coffee shop pointed out that Fairplay still had its mail delivered by Pony Express :-)
Checking my email
Just under the Starbucks sign is Pikes Peak, which I decided to visit, since it is the ideal Keith type of mountain -- they have built a road to the top (just over 14,000 feet)
Here's a better view
Unfortunately it had snowed overnight, so the road was only open to about 11500 feet - at least it only cost $5 instead of $10 :-)
It's a steep climb, but the barge seemed quite happy
Before long some snow, and wet unpaved road.
The barge, being rear wheel drive, was quite slippy on some of the hairpin turns.
Big snow clearer
End of the road...
I went into the gift shop for a drink.
Just then they decided that it was clear to go further (the road was paved for another mile or so)
Then, up above the tree line
You can just see the line of orange cones marking how far you can go.
And the view...
The view towards the edge of the Rockies and Colorado Springs (well known enclave of reason, liberal thought and the US Airforce Academy)
Here's a panoramic view stitched from 12 pictures (70mm - portrait orientation)
The best view of the other direction is from when I turned back down.
The thin line of snowy peaks on the horizon are those west of Fairplay and are almost 100 miles away.
So there you have it... out of the mountains, up I-25, skirt round Denver, to a motel near the Airport. This time I even have a good wireless signal in my room.
The $5 I saved at Pikes Peak went on a car wash, since the Barge was looking decidedly muddy after those roads up the mountain, and I didn't want to be charged some ridiculous amount for cleaning the car by the rental agency (they are like that)
Tomorrow I'm off, so this is really the end of my Photo-diary. Hope you have found it interesting/amusing.
Just a few odd pictures I meant to include in earlier days, but forgot :-)
For Steve, who I know is interested in the varieties of electricity pylons you see when abroad.
Who needs lights to control traffic at roadworks when you have a supply of inexpensive labour.
One of the difficulties you sometimes get on US Freeways, is which lane to choose?
A better stitched version of the wide street at Gunnison, after I realised that I had a copy of some specialist stitching software on my laptop.
THE END
Well almost... I got an extra 2 1/4hrs waiting in the plane at Denver airport, due to bad weather at Chicago. At least I had a nice view of the mountains out of the window.
Here are some of my fellow travellers :-)
Waiting
Now I'm back and have just been asked to provide some pictures for an exhibition next week!
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