2018 Colorado Fall Color Road Trip – Day 3 – Sunset – Supplement

After the previous post, I realized that I had forgotten to include a few iPhone photos of my final campsite along Owl Creek Pass Road.  So this is just a brief post to add those photos.  Thanks for your indulgence.

The final campsite along Owl Creek Pass Road, Colorado. Fall 2018, iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A panorama at the last campsite along Owl Creek Pass Road, Colorado. Fall 2018, iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Panorama of last campsite along Owl Creek Pass Road, Colorado, Fall 2018. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

2018 Colorado Fall Color Road Trip – Day 3 – Sunset

After early and mid-morning photos on day 3 along Owl Creek Pass Road, I drove around exploring other areas and spur roads off of the main forest road, looking for another suitable campsite that would put me near a place for sunset photos.  Many of the best campsites were already taken and I ended up across the creek from my first night’s campsite, where I saw a couple of hunters breaking camp.  I pulled into the site, struck up a conversation with the hunters, the younger one a chemical engineer from Missouri and son-in law of the older one from Arkansas.  The older hunter has been coming to this area since the 1970s.  They had been elk hunting, unsuccessfully; but they had an antler shed, which they offered to me.  Having no desire for the shed, I left it at the campsite for someone else to find.  After they finished loading their considerable camping and hunting equipment, including an OHV, onto a trailer and into their pickup trucks, they headed out and I moved into the flattest area of the site.  This campsite was very open and it was a sunny day, so I put out the solar panels and allowed them to charge the Sportsmobile batteries, until about an hour before sunset, then I packed those away, since I did not want to pack them up after dark and I expected it would be dark soon after my sunset shots.

The views from this site were very similar to those on my first night and first morning of camping, but with more trees and the creek between me and the mountainside.  I walked around the area and down along the creek, looking for suitable places from which to shoot, then had a sandwich, potato chips and Gatorade for dinner, while waiting for the late afternoon light.

The photos from this site were so similar to those from the first day of shooting and with more clutter in the foreground, that I initially thought about not including any in this blog; but as I looked at them a second time, I thought some might look better, if converted to monotone or edited with one of my other image editors, in addition to Lightroom adjustments to the raw images.  So I did just that, experimenting with Nik Silver Effects Pro and Color Effects 4 and Skylum Luminar 2018 software.

The photos posted here are also posted to Flickr (just click on an image), where the images will be sharper and brighter than in this post.

One of only two color photos chosen to post from this shoot. I’m not really enthralled by this composition and in particular the bland sky, but I think it might be the best of the color images that I captured during this shoot. I processed the raw image in Lightroom and Luminar 2018. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 46mm, f/11, 0.4s, ISO 160.
This is the best sunset light that I saw on this feature. I might have brought out the colors in the foreground a bit more, but I wanted the emphasis to be on the rocks in the mountainside.  Raw image processed in Lightroom and Nik Color Effects Pro 4. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/20s, ISO 160.
I really wanted to see the cliff face in this image appear colorful in the setting sunlight, but it never got as much light on it as I wanted. At least, the color bands, shadows and highlight along the rock face add interest in this version. The trees in the foreground are colorful, with contrasting color and shapes, but just did not seem to work as well in the color image.
This large cliff face was just south of my campsite. The rock is not colorful and the setting sun did not produce a colorful glow at any time as the sun went low on the horizon, so this and all the other color photos of this feature were bland. In this B&W conversion, I wanted to emphasize the rock along the edge and top of the mountainside, while keeping hints of the trees in fall color in the foreground. The sky was mostly bland, adding minimal interest, other than the cloud along the right side, so I made the sky go mostly dark, making the cliffside look as if it had been purposely light painted. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64.
Those of you who have viewed the photos from my first blog about this photo trip will recognize this feature.  In this B&W version,  I like the contrasts produced by variations in the tree foliage color and the shape of the trees in the foreground, as well as the highlight on the rock outcrops. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/13s, ISO 160.
This is a similar view to that in the above photo, with more sky, less of the trees in the foreground and more of the mountainside.  The sky was bland, so I let it go black to emphasize the rock along the skyline, while retaining the hints of fall color in the deciduous trees. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/15s, ISO 64.
The rock face in the original color photo is very colorful in the setting sunlight; but the foreground is distracting in the color photo. I have kept a hint of the foreground color in the trees in this image, while highlighting the rocks with its texture and shadows. I like the way the two tall evergreen trees appear to be pointing towards the rising moon and the diagonal lines formed by the tree lines and the jagged, horizontal line of the top of the mountainside, both converging near the rising moon. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 70mm, f/11, 1/15s, IDO 64.
I was trying to capture the reflection of color in the sky in the branch of the creek near the center of this image, but it just did not fit well with the rest of the image. I like this B&W conversion with the fall color in the trees, showing up brightly against the dark evergreens. I do not like the tree along the left edge, but I could not find a pleasing composition of this scene that excluded that tree. There is also a halo effect, produced by the Nik Silver Effects Pro software, that is quite noticeable along the top of the peak on the right side of the image. I do not really like this effect; but I currently do not know how to eliminate it. I’m sure there must be a way to tone this down. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 30mm, f/11, 1/3s, ISO 160.

The opinions expressed about the images here are my subjective ones.  I welcome your feedback, opinions and critiques, as I can always use those to improve my work.

Colorado 2018 Fall Road Trip – Owl Creek Pass Road, Day 1 – Photo Scouting

After shooting near Dallas Divide in the early morning of September 18, I stopped  at a little coffee house in Ridgway for a cup of coffee and a breakfast taco, then topped off the fuel tank, since I planned to be in the mountains with no services for several days.

I then proceeded to Owl Creek Pass Road, aka County Road 8 and forest access road 858, when it enters the national forest.  There are spur roads off of 858, along which are dispersed forest campsites.  The campsites are free and available on a first come basis.  The best sites are always popular, so it is best to find one before very late in the day.  There are also several fee campgrounds near the Silvercreek Reservoir that are run by the National Forest Service.  Those campsites are nestled in Aspens, have trash service, pit toilets and potable water available (no RV hookups at the campsites).  There are also pit toilets near some of the dispersed camping areas.

Most of the dispersed campsites have fire pits constructed of local rocks and some even have free firewood stacked at the sites, which I did not take advantage of, not wanting to reek of smoke and having to tend to the fire late into an evening;  even though, I would have really enjoyed a cheerful, crackling fire.

Free firewood at a campsite. (iPhone photo).

Owl Creek Pass Road is rated as an easy, maintained, 4-wheel drive road and usually drivable by an ordinary passenger vehicle.  It is wide enough in most places for vehicles to pass and there are pull outs along the road, otherwise.

There was road maintenance (new gravel and grading) work going on over the lower portion of the forest road during my visit, which caused very little delay; but I did have to follow a grader over one stretch during one day on the road and shared the roadway with dump trucks a couple of times.

The road can be washboarded, which was the worst condition, other than mud after a rain, that I encountered.  Most of the worst washboarding was on county road 8 prior to getting to the forest road.

The drive itself is quite scenic along all of the forest road and along the spur roads, which I explored, scouting for a good campsite that would allow for late afternoon and maybe even early morning photos without having to drive to another location.  I was fortunate to find a very nice, secluded site with great view from the site and good photo opportunities within short walking distances from the site.

Somewhere along Owl Creek Pass Road. As you can see, it was a bit hazy and partly cloudy and the Aspens are in mixed color change. (iPhone photo)
Along the route, I could get glimpses of large patches of Aspens in full color. (iPhone photo)
The sign at the top of Owl Creek Pass. I could tell by the colors here and elsewhere along the route that I should have plenty of fall color to photo and enjoy. (iPhone photo)

In fact my site was so good that a couple walked by as I was setting up the solar panels, came back by in a few minutes and hailed me.  They asked how long I would be staying, since they wanted to bring friends up to camp and they said my site would be perfect.  I told them that I anticipated only staying for the night and would then move on in search of another site.  We chatted a bit.  I learned that they had a place in Telluride and Tucson, Arizona, staying in Telluride in the summer and Arizona in the winter.  They were intrigued by my camper vehicle, as most people are that see it, asking lots of questions about it.

A panoramic view near my first campsite (iPhone photo)

After setting up the solar panels, I walked around near my selected campsite shooting scouting photos with my iPhone mid to late afternoon, checking locations which I thought would have favorable sunlight near sunset with interesting features to photograph.

This fence line blocked off an area near my first campsite to keep campers out so that damage caused by vehicles as seen in the lower right of this photo could be healed. (iPhone photo).
A wide angle view of the mountain side to the east of my first campsite. These features looked like they might get good sunset rays. And the clouds would add interest to the sky, if they were still around at sunset. (iPhone photo)
I think this craggy rock wall with the shadows within it would look awesome at sunset, but I was a bit concerned about the angle of the sunlight on these at sunset. (iPhone photo)
Another view of that craggy rock wall. (iPhone photo)
Another wide angle view of the mountainside to my east from a different view point. (iPhone photo)
A zoomed in view of a prominent feature on the mountain side east of my campsite with a variety of fall color. This should be a prime candidate for sunset photos, especially if the clouds hang around. (iPhone photo)
A view of the most prominent feature of the mountain side to my east, framed by trees. (iPhone photo)
Another view with slightly different framing. (iPhone photo).
If the light holds until near sunset that peak is looking better for sunset photos. (iPhone photo)
Those clouds are awesome, but I hope the clouds do not block the sunset rays or it becomes completely overcast at sunset. (iPhone photo)
The clouds are definitely putting some features in their shadows at this time. (iPhone photo)
Another view of the prominent mountainside feature with colorful foreground trees. (iPhone photo)
This photo was shot from the clear area just to the west of my first campsite.  It is a great view from a campsite. (iPhone photo)
A view of the creek just to the west of my first campsite. Those peaks in the background might get good light at sunset and maybe I could shoot along the creek at sunrise. (iPhone photo).
A natural, early Christmas Tree? Sitting in my camp chair, about an hour and a half prior to sunset, having a quick sandwich, I noticed that the very top of this evergreen tree was lit up like a Christmas Tree star ornament. (iPhone photo)

All of the photos in this post are via an iPhone.  I will follow up later with DSLR photos made at sunset at this location.

On the topic of iPhone and/or point and shoot cameras, one of my former work colleagues, an avid photographer and photographic mentor, has recently posted articles on National Parks Traveler about shooting with point and shoot cameras, including phone cameras.  [Check out her webpage, you will like what you see and may not want to come back to my site afterwards : > )].  I sometimes forget that I have a fairly good point and shoot camera (iPhone) in my pocket; but I have been trying to get into the habit of using it more often to capture scenes for scouting, reminders and documentation, when getting out the DSLR is not practical.

Thanks for following and don’t forget to comment and/or critique the photos or blog writing.

Ken

 

Scenes Along Colorado 4 Wheel Drive Roads in the Ouray, Silverton and Telluride Areas of Colorado, Part 2

As the title implies, this is a continuation of the previous post.  The photos in this post are a combination of iPhone and DSLR photos and were taken while traversing these 4 wheel drive roads:  Imogene Pass, Engineer Pass, California Pass and maybe others. (I neglected to take notes of where we were each day and I can’t positively identify the location of some of the photos that I acquired and I am not using a GPS device on my current camera.  This is an issue that I must address in the future).

A typical view that one sees along these roads in the higher elevations is as shown here:

A typical mountain view from a high mountain pass road (iPhone)

We traveled Imogene Pass Road from the Ouray side, accessing it from US 550, splitting off from the road that goes to Yankee Boy Basin (covered in a previous post).  Imogen Pass is the second highest mountain pass in Colorado at 13, 114 feet.  It is rated as moderate, which means that only suitably equipped 4 wheel drive vehicles should attempt this road.  There are Jeep rentals in the local area and we saw many of the rental vehicles on this road, as well as some specialized tour vehicles with seating for passengers in a flat bed area.  Those tour vehicles looked a bit large for these type roads, but apparently their drivers are experienced in driving these roads.  The seating in the tour vehicles appeared to all be in the open, meaning one might get wet and cold, when caught in one of the frequent mountain showers, if not properly prepared for the weather.  Views along the road can be spectacular.  These two photos show the view looking back down the road that we traveled up to the pass:

A view from Imogene Pass Summit (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)
A view from Imogene Pass summit (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld) (More zoomed in than the previous photo).

A view in the opposite direction, in which we would continue is shown in this photo:

Imogene Pass Summit view (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)

As along most of these roads, there are numerous abandoned mine sites.  The Imogene Pass road goes through the large Tomboy mine site, which was a really large operation, before it was abandoned in 1928.  The remains of the buildings cover a rather large area and one could spend quite a bit of time wandering around the site.  However, these abandoned mining areas can be dangerous and nearly all are on private property with warning signs not to enter old mines or buildings.  Tomboy is one of the highest ghost towns in the US.  There was a store, school, living quarters for miners and even a YMCA.

A few of the many ruins at the Tomboy Mine townsite (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)

One can often see views of other mountain roads from these high mountain roadways.  One of the famously difficult 4 wheel drive roads is Black Bear, which has numerous sharp switchbacks, that typically require at least two point turns, even for short wheel base vehicles.  We got a glimpse of Black Bear as we neared Telluride on the way down from Imogene Pass.

A view of the sharp switch backs on the difficult Black Bear 4 wheel drive (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)

This is not a great photo, a big zoom would have worked better for showing the details of the switchbacks, but I only had a wide angle with me.  Look closely in the green area just below the peak about one third across the photo from the left and you can see the trace of the roadway down the steep mountainside.  There is also a long waterfall almost in the center of the photo in the cliff face.  One has to look very closely to see the waterfall in this photo.

To drive Engineer Pass, we began just off of US 550 between Ouray and Silverton.  This road is rated as moderate and I think most of the difficult part is near the starting point off of US 550.  After passing through that portion, much of the road is fairly easy (easy for me, since I was not driving).  We did not continue the road down into Lake City, electing to go to the ghost town of Animas Forks and continuing along other roads from Animas Forks, over California Pass, down Corkscrew Gulch and arriving back at US 550.

An abandoned mine site as seen from Engineer Pass road (iPhone)
Odom Point along the Engineer Pass road route (iPhone)
Engineer Pass Road (iPhone)
An old mine line shack on the road between Engineer Pass and Animas Forks (iPhone)
Animas Forks Ghost Town near Silverton, Colorado (iPhone)

Animas Forks is a mining ghost town near Silverton, Colorado.  It can be accessed by a passenger vehicle in the summer months along County Road 2 from Silverton or via a number of other 4 wheel drive roads.  There are a number of fairly well preserved building at this site and, as you will see in these photos, is a popular site to visit.

A few of the four wheel drive vehicles in the parking area at Animas Forks ghost town (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)
Old mine building foundation at Animas Forks ghost town (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)
One of the better preserved buildings in Animas Forks ghost town (Nikon D850, Nikkor 14-24mm, handheld)

From Animas Forks, we proceeded along another 4 wheel drive road to California Pass.

A view from California Pass Summit (iPhone)
California Pass Summit (iPhone)
The Jeep at California Pass Summit (iPhone) (Note the GoPro on the driver side front fender).
Long winding 4 wheel drive roads just below California Pass summit (iPhone)

We continued along the road that passes to the left of the lake in the above photo.  The road to the right of the lake goes to another much more difficult 4 wheel drive road.

A lake just below California Pass summit (iPhone) (A closer view of the lake seen in the previous photo)
An abandoned mine sluice along the California Pass Road (iPhone)
Clouds gathering over the aptly named Red Mountains, California Pass Road (iPhone)

We continued back to US 550 on Corkscrew 4 wheel drive, but I did not get any interesting photos along that route.

This marks the end of my July trip to Colorado.  The following photos are a few iPhone shots that I took on the route back home.

The Sportsmobile at Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Texas (iPhone)
A panorama of a portion of Lake Meredith (iPhone)
A warning sign at a Texas Panhandle Rest Stop (iPhone)

 

 

 

 

 

More on McKinney Falls State Park, Austin, TX

McKinney Falls State Park near Austin, TX is a picturesque place in the fall, when fall colors are prevalent, and in the spring, when wildflowers are blooming.  The photos in this post are from a fall visit, during a drought, so the water flow over the falls was minimal.  After heavy rains there can be a tremendous amount of water flowing in the stream and over the falls.  At low flow, one can walk in the stream and over the falls, using care not to slip on the rock, as a fall could result in an injury or worse.

There are numerous camping areas in the park for both RV and tent campers with electric and water hookups.

It can be quite hot here in the summer, so fall and spring are probably the most comfortable times for camping.  However, an RV, with A/C and a furnace will be fine for the summer and winter camping.

More information can be obtained at McKinney Falls.

Fall in McKinney Falls State Park, Austin, TX
Lower Falls, eye level view
Lower Falls, Eye Level View 2
Diamond Back Water Snake