Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Colorado Autumn

Greetings once again. I'm cooped up and bored, it's snowing and cold, I'm not on the mountain, and I've been tinkering with some shots I took in the fall of last year. These were all taken within a week of acquiring my Nikon D3000 DSLR, so there were some exposure and composition errors that I fixed in Photoshop over the last week or so. My repairs have errors as well, but these pics aren't for sale so I don't really care if you don't. Deal?

The first three photos were taken at the Mammoth Gulch Reservoir site, near Rollinsville, CO.
According to my father, Mammoth was the place to be if you were a hippy from Boulder in the 1970's, sort of a hideout for dopeheads from a bygone era. It's still full of dopeheads, but it's not a lake anymore; they blasted the dam in the early 1980's because it was unsafe. Below is the road leading up to the lake, a 4x4 trail that is impassable between Oct. 1st and June 1st most years.


This is what's left of the lake, meandering Mammoth Creek, which is ice cold and teeming with brook trout. You can follow the creek all the way back into the basin to where it begins, if you're so inclined, but the going is quite rough, as there really isn't an established trail. I recommend it, though, if you're an experienced hiker. 
 
Gurgle gurgle.

This is Baker's Tank, located on the Breckenridge side of Boreas Pass. 
 Boreas Pass is an old railroad grade over the Continental Divide, and it's quite mellow, accessible with normal passenger cars. I particularly love the color of the tank, especially with the waning sun behind me as I took the shot.
The day I took that shot, I traveled over three mountain passes, crossing the Continental Divide three times. The sunset shot below was taken on Kenosha Pass, near Bailey, CO. I was looking for a vantage point high above the valley floor, and after finding my way through some private property and up a 4x4 trail, I discovered a rock outcropping that put me about 100 feet up, and about 60 feet out away from the hillside. I'm facing sort of southwest here, towards Buena Vista.

About a week after I did my three pass tour, I traveled to Fremont Pass, near Leadville, CO. I wanted to get some shots of the first dusting of snow on the peaks, and was treated to the scene you see below. This is Clinton Gulch Reservoir, a beautiful lake located at about 11,000 feet. 

The final two shots in this installment were taken on my first outing with my new camera, which took me over Berthoud Pass to Willow Creek Reservoir, a long, narrow lake located near Granby, CO. I had hoped to capture the aspens in full gold regalia, but sadly the change took place both early, and very rapidly in this part of Colorado. 

In the final pic, you can see some that there are many dead trees in the forest to the left of the lake. This is due to a massive and almost complete infestation by bark beetles, which has wiped out the majority of the lodgepole pines in northern Colorado. It's sad to see how devastating it is; most of Grand County is dead at this point, and only a fire of biblical proportions will stop the spread. In 20 years, these trees will be gone...

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