After scouting the area near my campsite, I decided to return to Little Baldy for sunset photography. I arrive on the upper slope of Little Baldy early, as is my usual practice, to look around again and pick compositions prior to sunset. As I was looking over the area, a herd of people from a parking lot visible in the distance, came up the eastern slope. They were all heading for the summit to watch the sunset. It was a Sunday evening and this is apparently a weekend favorite sunset viewing site for visitors. I had not anticipated this, since I had seen so few people in this area earlier in the day. We landscape photographers usually prefer no people in our photos.
After the crowd ascended to the crest of Little Baldy, I worked my way to the western slope, rather than going to the highest point, where I knew the crowd would congregate.
Little Baldy 1
Fortunately, most of those on the summit stayed below the peak on the eastern side and were not visible most of the time I was shooting.
Little Baldy 2Wichita MountainsCacti RidgeRed Grass, Red Rocks and CactiRed Rocks DelightWichita Mountains Sunset
As I was shooting the final images of this shoot, one couple did appear near the top of Little Baldy and I included them in some shots, but they were moving too much for me to get non-blurry images. So I have no images of the actual peak of Little Baldy with the best of golden hour light to share.
With a final destination of Badlands National Park, South Dakota, I needed stops in route to break up the long road trip. I searched the maps of the states I would travel through to get to the Badlands for possibilities. The first place that I noted in Oklahoma was the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, which is only a few hours drive from my home base. I searched online for information about the refuge and looked for photos taken in the refuge. The results of that research convinced me that I should spend a couple of nights in the refuge RV campground.
Prior to this visit, I had no idea that such a place was so close by and that there were actually old granite mountains in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. Since I was traveling just after the busy summer season, there were plenty of RV sites from which to choose. After consulting the online campground map, I chose a site that looked like it was conveniently located near the restroom facility and near hiking trails from the campground.
It turned out that my campsite was just across a campground road from the campground hosts. I stopped by to chat with the hosts, let them know that I had arrived, get updates on the campground rules and conditions and get their advice on locations for sunset and sunrise photography.
I find that most non-photographers have completely different concepts about sunset/sunrise photography than do photographers. Still it is good to get local knowledge, especially for first visits to a location. After checking out the locations on the refuge map of the hosts’ suggestions, I decided that I should check out the area around the campground first and scout the suggested areas the following day.
I walked around the campground to get my bearings, find the trails originating in the campground and check out those trails. The refuge map is sketchy. Others that I encountered during my exploration of the large refuge area, expressed the same frustration with the refuge map.
Hole In One, Wildflowers, iPhone Photo
There were pretty wildflowers growing in the campground area.
Spider Like Wildflowers, iPhone Photo
After some effort and hiking much farther around the campground, than should have been necessary, I found the trail that I wanted to explore. The trailhead was visible from my campsite, but the trailhead was not marked! There were also branches along the trail, some branches clearly traveled trails, some branches not so clearly used and it was not even clear that those branches were actually trails and there were no markings along the trails.
It was not an area that one could get lost in, during daylight at least, so I did not mind exploring and I eventually found my way to my chosen destination.
One branch of the trail went around nearby Quanah Parker Lake. After hiking portions of that trail, I could see no good views for sunset photography, so I chose a branch that went away from the lake. That branch took me through woods to the other side of the lake, which looked more promising for photography.
Quanah Parker Lake, iPhone Scouting Photo
There were plentiful Prickly Pear Cacti in this area.
Prickly Pear Spikes, iPhone PhotoLooking towards Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
In addition to checking out the lake, I was interested in the map feature referred to as Little Baldy. I was not really sure what to expect of Little Baldy nor where exactly it was, given the sketchy map, but I figured I would know it when I saw it.
On the way to Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
There were many granite rocks and boulders scattered around, so I experimented with using those as foreground objects and tried to visualize how the scenes would look at sunset and sunrise.
Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
When I spotted Little Baldy, I explored around and up its slope, trying to pick vantage points from which to shoot at sunset today and for sunrise the following morning.
Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting PhotoView from Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
Shooting with the sun low in the sky, one’s shadow often becomes a problem to deal with. Sometimes a desired composition just can’t be obtained without one’s shadow and compositional adjustments have to be made.
View from Little Baldy, iPhone Scouting Photo
Now that I know where I want to be at sunset, I just have to figure out the timing for departing my campsite and getting into place prior to sunset. I’ve now got a good idea of the most direct path from my campsite to my intended location, so all I have to do is time the hike. Doing so as I returned to my campsite, it turned out that the hike is only about 10-15 minutes. That is really convenient and means that I can return to camp after sunset shooting without hiking in the dark and I can even hike back for sunrise photos and not have to hike in morning darkness, either.
We left Hotchkiss headed towards home, driving CO92 to US 50 on the first leg of this journey.
Don’t Fence Me In
This is a scenic drive following a creek and its canyon that feeds into the Gunnison River, then tracks near the Gunnison River as it flow towards the Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Canyon and SkyCanyon and WildflowersIndian Paint BrushWildflowers
At one of the large pull outs along this route, a group of motorcyclist pulled in. One of them asked me to take a group photo on one of their phones. Afterwards, I asked permission to get a group photo for my blog. I was assured that none of them were in a witness protection program or had ex-spouses searching for them.
Riders of the Western Range
It turned out that most of this group are from DFW, Texas and the young couple on the right are from Tupelo, Mississippi, with the female an alumni of my college (Ole Miss).
Their handles, from left to right, are: Jax, Bab, Blackout, Wheezy, Bronco, Sparky, Tinkle, Demon Dawg, and Helkat.
Thank you all for allowing me to include your group photo in my blog,
Dinner plans were complicated by a number of our choice restaurants being closed for various reasons, requiring some driving about looking for alternatives. As we drove between two local towns, I made mental notes of possible locations for sunset photography. After dinner in Hotchkiss, I returned to one of those location for sunset photography.
Mountains and CloudsClouds, Mountains and ValleyMountain Peaks at SunsetThe CloudColorado Sunset Clouds
As I returned to Hotchkiss, I noted an almost full, silvery moon rising above the clouds. The moonrise was hidden by the clouds, when I was shooting. It was too late to find a good vantage point from which to include the moon in my late day images. That was disappointing. If I had hung out at my sunset shooting location a few more minutes, maybe I would have had an opportunity to get the moon in my images. Never the less, I thought I had a good sunset photo session.
From Ridgway we traveled to Hotchkiss, Colorado, where we planned to visit the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Years ago we had briefly visited the south rim, but this was the first visit to the North Rim. After checking into our motel, which was surprisingly nice for such a small town, we drove to the north rim.
It is a fairly long drive from Hotchkiss to the canyon, but I wanted to do a bit of scouting, prior to returning for late day or early morning photos. It was early afternoon and the sun was high in the sky. We stopped at a number of canyon overlooks, where I snapped iPhone scouting photos.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone PhotoBlack Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone Photo
Since this is a deep canyon, direct sun light penetrates to the bottom for only a few minutes each day. The best time to photograph the canyon is probably not during the typically preferred golden hours of early morning and late day, so timing when to be here is a problem for those of us that are not highly knowledgeable of the lighting variation across the seasons here.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone Photo
Much geology is revealed in the rocks of the canyon walls. One can find lots of information on the canyon’s geology via many online sources. Here is one link to check out, if interested, and another here.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone PhotoBlack Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone PhotoBlack Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone PhotoBlack Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone PhotoBlack Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim, iPhone Photo
The last photo in this post shows a feature referred to as “The Camel” (left of center and just above the vertical center).
My original intention was to return to the canyon with my DSLR either later today or the next morning, but given the travel time from our lodging and the uncertainty about the best time of day to be here, I decided more effort on this visit might not be adequately fruitful. Instead, we changed our travel plans and decided to move on towards home a day earlier than planned.
I know these iPhone photos are not very good, but these are all I have for this trip.
We spent a portion of our second day in the Ridgway area driving over Owl Creek Pass, making a loop over the pass from Ridgway, down to US 50, through Montrose and back to Ridgway for dinner.
I planned better today, going for an earlier dinner to allow time afterwards to drive along CO62 prior to sunset to shoot mountain scenes at sunset.
Serene EveningGolden MountainsDallas Divide Sunset Peaks
After a day of browsing and walking around in Ouray and Telluride, quaint, old Colorado tourist towns, we had dinner in Ridgway. I had hoped to be able to rush up the highway toward or over the Dallas Divide from Ridgway, after dinner for sunset photography, but we were a little late getting out and the service was slow at our restaurant. By the time we finished dinner, it was too late to go anywhere. Arriving back at our lodging and resigned to having lost my opportunity for sunset photography today, I hoisted my camera backpack, grabbed my tripod and camera and began to walk into the lodge. Then I noted golden sunset light on the nearest mountaintops. So I jogged down the road past the inn to get past other buildings, power lines and trees to try to get into a location to shoot the rapidly changing scene before the light faded away.
EventideEventide 2Day’s Final PerformanceFinaleMoon, Sunset Clouds and Fading Mountain LightDay’s End
As the sunset light faded away, I walked back towards the inn, stopping to photograph grass and wildflowers in the dim evening light.
Grass and WildflowersGrass 1Grass 2ProgressionFuzzy, old head
After a morning of browsing and shopping in Ouray, we traveled over the Dallas Divide to Telluride, another quaint, old Colorado town that is popular with summer tourist and winter skiers.
In route along Colorado 62, I kept an eye out for potential photography sites, hoping to return for sunset photos. I stopped at one location to get a few shots of the afternoon storm clouds building over the mountain tops.
In Telluride, I only used my iPhone to shoot a few images in the old town.
Holding it TogetherStorm Clouds, Telluride, CO 1Storm Clouds, Telluride, CO 2Watchful
There must be a story behind this mural painted on the side of a Telluride building, but I don’t know it.
Storm Clouds,Telluride, CO 3Building Plaque, Telluride, CO
Butch Cassidy reportedly took over $24,000 in the robbery of the San Miguel Valley Bank. That was quite a bit of money in those days, equivalent to about $857,000 in 2022 money. Butch should have retired after this haul.
The drive from Durango, Colorado via US 550 to Silverton and Ouray has to be one of the best road trip drives in the U.S. with magnificent mountain views, many sharp switchbacks with slow speed required to safely navigate those sharp curves. The road is often on the very edge of steep drop offs.
There are prominent red top mountain peaks that can be seen for miles along this roadway. Somewhere between Durango and Ouray, I pulled off at a dirt road going into the forest to get a few shots of red top mountains with the typical afternoon storm clouds gathering above them.
Red TopRed Top and CloudsRed Peak and CloudsRed Pate
After photographing an abandoned mine mill near Animas Forks, CO, we drove back along a 4 wheel drive road towards Animas Forks, keeping an eye out for an abandoned truck we had been told about.
We soon spotted the truck a short distance up a spur road.
Final Resting PlaceBelow PeakNo Delivery TodayForlornRIP
Wildflowers and clouds seem to be trying to comfort this old, rusting, abandoned truck in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
