Category: National Monument

Echo Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado 2019, Scouting Photography

This post is a continuation of experiences and photography during a July 2019 road trip in Colorado.

From the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument my oldest son and I continued on to Echo Park, also in Dinosaur National Monument.  To get to Echo Park one must travel 13 miles down a narrow, steep, rocky, high clearance vehicle road.  The road is not an extreme 4 wheel drive, at least not when dry and going into the area is mostly downhill; but 4 wheel drive vehicles are recommended for this road.   There are some narrow intervals, where it is not possible for two vehicles to pass each other.

There is a sizable campground in Echo Park, but sites are on a first come basis, so there is no guarantee that one will find a campsite after the drive down.  We were fortunate that a number of campsites were available, when we arrived, and two of those sites had good shade, which we really needed, since the daytime temperatures were in the mid 90s (F).  The shade only protected us during the morning and part of mid-day.  In the afternoons there was no avoiding the sun.  Since we were out in the early morning and late day for photography, we were mostly resting around the campsite during the day.  The summer heat can make it difficult to be entirely comfortable in the vehicle during the day and the insects with mosquitos made it undesirable to be outdoors.  This is one of those times, when an outdoor, screen shelter would be useful.  However, a nearby couple with such a shelter said the insects and mosquitos got into the shelter, anyway.  The mosquitos also got into our vehicle each time we opened a door, so we spent some time trying to eliminate them.  I have since acquired a couple of battery powered bug zappers to test during a future trip.

The Sportsmobile in Echo Park Camp Site. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Steamboat Rock in my window. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Echo Park Campground view from my window. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

The setting for the campground is very nice with views of Steamboat Rock on one side and views of high cliffs all around.  From our campsite we only had to walk a very short distance through woods to the river and good views of Steamboat Rock and the Yampa River.

Steamboat Rock in Echo Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
A panoramic view of the Yampa River going around Steamboat Rock. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

During the mid-day hours, we made a couple of exploratory hikes looking for good places for sunrise and sunset photography.

An old dead tree along a trail in Echo Park. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

Even though the NPS website says there are no trails in Echo Park, there is at least one created by frequent visitors and it appears to go on along the river for quite a way.

A trail through Echo Park. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

Hiking along this trail, we found a large, open grassy park with scattered rocks that would be useful as foreground, with the canyon walls in the background.

Echo Park with rock foreground and starburst. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

The bank of the river near this area is steep, but we found a way down into the channel.  If hiking here, be aware that the river bank is undercut in numerous places, where it could give way without warning, so be very careful walking near the river bank.

Yampa River Channel. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

We think we can get good photos in the river channel at both sunrise and sunset.

Yampa River at its confluence with the Green River. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

The confluence of the Yampa and Green Rivers cannot be seen in these photographs, as it is hidden behind the vegetation and rocks near the center of the the image above and that below.

Yampa River near the confluence with the Green River. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The Yampa River and Canyon in Echo Park. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Yampa River and canyon walls near sunset. iPhone photograph edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

Several of these iPhone images were actually made during sunrise or sunset shoots.

DSLR sunset and sunrise photography here will be the subject of subsequent posts.

Until then,

Ken

Colorado 2019 – Gates of Lodore – Sunrise

Since the hike to the sunrise shooting location at the Gates of Lodore was not long, we did not have to get up excessively early, but we still began hiking in the dark this morning.

We were fortunate that we had the moon setting as the sun was rising today.  I made a series of images as the moon set behind the western canyon wall.

Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 0.8s, ISO 2000. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 18mm, f/11, 1/6s, ISO 1600. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 16mm, f/11, 0.8s, ISO 200. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

The moon is so much brighter than the foreground that getting a really good moon exposure was difficult, so I did not get any detail in the moon with the long exposure times required for the foreground, even though I was using a graduated neutral density filter.  A combination of the moons movement and/or the wide angle distortion results in an oblong moon, too.  I could have tried to make multiple images with proper exposure for the moon, then for the foreground and merged those, but due to the rapidly changing morning light, I decided against this.  Plus, I am usually not really pleased with the results of such attempts.

I continued to shoot as the sunrise light progressed down the canyon wall and the clouds moved through the morning sky.

Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 16mm, f/11, 1.6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 19mm, f/11, 1.0s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunrise. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 1/6s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

On the hike back towards the campsite, we made a detour down to the river to check out possible compositions closer to the river.

Green River near Gates of Lodore. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/11, 1/13s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

This image with the canyon wall reflection in the river is the only decent image I managed to get there.  If this image is viewed on Flickr, click on the Flickr image to see the spider on the grass frond on the right side of the image. (Not all of these images are posted to Flickr).

The next stop on this trip is Echo Park, also in Dinosaur National Monument.

Until then,

Ken

Colorado – July 2019 – Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument – Scouting & Sunset Shoot

From Irish Canyon, we traveled to the Gates of Lodore campsite in Dinosaur National Monument, checking out Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge first.  We decided that Browns Park would not be an easy place to photograph without having a second vehicle, since it was too far from the campsites to the most photogenic scenes.  This is one downside to traveling in a camper type vehicle, as it takes a while to prepare the vehicle for travel after camping in it.

When we arrived at the Gates of Lodore campground, there were plenty of available campsites, but the one nearest the trailhead to the Gates of Lodore and with good shade (it was hot) had a car parked in it, even though the site did not have a reserved tag on it.  We thought it possible that the car’s occupants had walked to the kiosk to fill out the reservation form, so we chose the next closest site that also had good shade.  We were not initially sure that we would stay in that site, so we were just sitting around discussing options, when a volunteer park ranger stopped by and provided much useful information about the park.  One of our concerns was the bear activity sign warning posted at each campsite.  There were bear vaults provided for storing food and anything with an odor that might attract bears.  We had lots of such items and it would be much trouble to move everything into a bear vault and retrieve it as we needed it.  The ranger assured us that there had not been any recent bear activity, so we did not need to bother with the vaults.  We also asked about mountain lion activity, but there had not been any sighting anywhere nearby, even though they are known to be around somewhere.  Mountain lions and bears are always a concern when hiking trails in their territory.

At least a half hour went by and no one returned to the vehicle in our preferred campsite, so we assumed hikers were parked there, where they should not be, if they were not camping.  So we paid for the site we were in and shortly afterwards the car’s occupants returned and departed.  Other campers soon came along and claimed that campsite.

After setting up the Sportsmobile for camping, we applied sunscreen over our insect repellant or vice versa and hiked to the Gates of Lodore.

Bleached animal bones along the Gates of Lodore trail. iPhone photo, with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik modules.

Along the trail we spotted a number of bleached animal bones, possibly remnants of a wild animal’s meal.

The trail we were on went far into the back country, but we only checked out view points for photographing the Gates of Lodore, which is a canyon through which the Green River flows.

Gates of Lodore, Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

The first few overlooks we checked out had much distracting vegetation in the foreground.  My son found a very nice place off of the trail from which to photograph.

We returned to camp, had a meal and returned to the trail prior to sunset.  I initially tried to shoot near the view point in the scouting photo above, but I soon abandoned that, since I was not pleased with any composition I could make there.  I went back along the trail and set up near my son, so I’m sure we ended up with very similar photos, although he somehow manages to get more appealing compositions than I, even in the same location.

Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 20mm, f/11, 1/13s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

I made numerous shots as the sun went lower into the sky, varying my compositions a little.  Shooting down river into the canyon at this location presents the frequent lighting restrictions as most canyons.  The canyon walls go into shadow well before sunset, so the typical golden hour light is not really attained.  There was some good light on the foreground vegetation from time to time and there was some colorful vegetation mixed with various shades of green.

Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 20mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 640. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

Even though these first two images are the same composition, the light on the foreground is different in each.

One can see the shadow moving quickly up the canyon wall on the left of these next two photos.

Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 22mm, f/11, 1/250s, ISO 800. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

I alternated from landscape to vertical trying to get some variation in the compositions.

Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 22mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 800. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

One can see how the light is changing on the foreground and the canyon walls.

Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 15mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 800. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

I varied the composition to get either more or less of the foreground boulders and/or the rock outcrop along the near canyon edge.

Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 15mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 800. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.
Gates of Lodore at sunset. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 15mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 1000. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo Nik modules.

Soon the light on the canyon wall was totally gone and only the clouds in the sky were varying in the images.

After this shoot we thought maybe sunrise would be a better time to shoot here.  So we will come back in the morning.

Until then,

Ken