Tag: Campground

Thirty Mile Campground, Rio Grande National Forest, July 2020

An interim stopover on my journey from Ridgeway, Colorado to the southeastern corner of Colorado in July, 2020 was Thirty Mile Campground.  It is a long, slow drive on rough county/forest service roads to the campground.  This campground has sites that one can reserve and others that are on a first come first serve basis.    There were only a few sites available, when I made my reservations prior to my trip to Colorado.  I wanted to be sure that I had a place to stay at least one night, so reserving a site assured that I would not have to search for a free site in the forest.  I thought I might be able to get one of the free sites, if I decided to stay a second night; but the campsites were all full or reserved on the day that I arrived and there were no reserve sites available for a second night.  I would have to wait until the second day to find any available free sites, if I wanted to stay a second night.

My campsite in Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado, July 2020. iPhone Photograph.

Thirty Mile is a nice campground and my site was just inside the campground along the Rio Grande, where it was pleasant to hear the rushing water in the river.  After checking into my campsite, I took a walk along the river to check out possible locations for photography late in the day and/or early in the morning.

The river is pretty, but there seemed to be limited possibilities for photographic variations along the river.  This is a popular place for anglers and many of the people in the campground were there to fish for trout in the Rio Grande.

I watched a doe grazing on the opposite side of the river, shooting a number of photos and videos with my phone.  The doe did not seem to care that I was watching it.  One of the unedited videos can be seen here.

After my walk along the river, I drove along the road past the campground to check out the scenery along the Rio Grande Reservoir, which is a very long reservoir.  The road beside the reservoir is mostly a narrow one lane road with periodic pullouts, where vehicles can pass each other.  It was a rainy, overcast day, which created some photographic opportunities.

An iPhone shot through windshield on a rainy day along the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

I drove almost to the very end of the reservoir before turning back.  Near the end, the water shallowed, revealing the trace of the river going into the reservoir.  In the upper end of the reservoir there was colorful vegetation and I got lucky when a break in the clouds allowed sunlight to highlight some of that vegetation.

Near the upper end of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

During my drive back towards the campground, I stopped to shoot with my iPhone at a few locations.

Wildflowers and Boulders beneath cloudy sky along the bank of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

There were a few scattered wildflowers and large colorful boulders, some covered with lichen, in various shapes between the roadway and the reservoir.

Boulders and a mountainside along side the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph,
Sportsmobile framed by boulders with a mountainside in the background, along the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.
Pointy and flat top boulders along the bank of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.
Wildflowers sheltered against a large boulder along the banks of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

The next post will have DSLR photos taken along the river and along the reservoir.

Stay well and safe,

Ken

 

 

 

Cold Springs Campground – Day 2 – Sunrise Photography

In the morning of July 13 we shot sunrise photos just east of the lake at Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest. We began shooting from a hillside just east of the lake.

Coldsprings Camping Area, Routt NF, CO
An area adjacent to the Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 2s, ISO
Coldsprings Camping Area, Routt NF, CO
An area adjacent to the Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 2s, ISO 64.

I thought that the weathered tree stump made an appropriate foreground object here.

Coldsprings Campground
Cold Springs Campground Scene. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.

The lake made a great mirror, reflecting the clouds in the sky and the trees along the edge of the campground.  None of the other campers were up and about yet.  We tried to be as quiet as we could so as not to disturb them.

Coldsprings Camping Area, Routt NF, CO
A scene adjacent to the Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, CO. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @24mm, f/16, 1.3s, ISO 64.

I put the weathered stump and a taller stump with slight side lighting at the edge of this photo.

After shooting on the hillside, we moved down into the meadow at the base of the cascade.  There were lots of white and blue wildflowers in the meadow, especially around the cascade and stream.  The area below the cascade was wet and marshy, which I had not anticipated and I was not wearing my water resistant hiking shoes.  My shoes, socks and feet got soaked with cold water.

Water Cascade, Coldsprings Campground, Routt NF, CO
A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 1.6s, ISO 64.
Water Cascade, Coldsprings Campground, Routt NF, CO
A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.
Water Cascade, Coldsprings Campground, Routt NF, CO
A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.
Water Cascade, Coldsprings Campground, Routt NF, CO
A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.

As you can see, I got multiple compositions of the cascade with varying amounts of the surroundings.  I used slow shutter speeds to get the silky effect of the flowing water.  There was not much wind, but there was enough motion in the vegetation to keep from getting really sharp images of the wildflowers.  I tried to make the images at times when the wind was most calm in hopes of getting sharper images.  This works with only limited success.

After breakfast, I hiked to the marshy area above the cascade, where there were many wildflowers in another meadow around the stream.  By the time I got there the clouds were mostly gone, the light harsh, still a little too much wind and many swarming mosquitoes.  I tried a few shots anyway, but those were not presentable.  Somewhere in there, I apparently lost my Rocket Blower, which I had just put into a pocket for convenience, rather than take it along in my backpack, which I left behind in the vehicle.  (For non-photographers, a Rocket Blower is a device for blowing dust off of lenses, filters and camera sensors.  This is an essential piece of gear, in my opinion, so I have since acquired another one.  For the rest of this trip, I had to borrow my son’s whenever I needed it).

Later in the morning we walked 10 minutes down the road to Smith Lake Trailhead.  Smith Lake Trail is only 0.7 miles, steep in a few places, mostly near the start, but mostly an easy trail.  We hiked to Smith Lake and decided to return the next morning for sunrise photography.

On the way to Smith Lake Trailhead, we noted a small field of Columbines, which would possibly be good for foreground shots at sunset, assuming the clouds cleared by that time, as it had gotten much cloudier and rained lightly off and on during the day.

We also walked back to the reservoir, hiking a short distance along one of the two trails starting at the reservoir.  We turned back as lightning and thunder got closer and more active.  It only sprinkled lightly and we took time to explore more in the area south of the roadway, along the stream from the reservoir.

That is it for this post.  Stay tuned for the sunset shoot results,

Ken