Color

Vainglory ~

/ Marilyn Davis / 2 Comments

There is a photographer, Brad Wilson, who photographs wild animals in the studio against a plain backdrop. These peacocks (two of which are technically pea hens) were perched a few feet above me atop a brick wall. Since the day was overcast, the camera exposure rendered the sky almost white. So I decided to take it white all the way, crop the images, and turn them into portraits in the manner of Brad Wilson. To see some of his work, go to https://www.boredpanda.com/animal-photography-studio-brad-wilson/.

A peek at South Park ~

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Contrail, just west of Kenosha Pass
North of Breckinridge
Part of the Mosquito Range, south of Hoosier Pass
South Park near Como
Descending Kenosha Pass: View of South Park and the Mosquito Rangejust west of Kenosha Pass

For yesterday’s drive I skirted Denver on the west side and took U.S. Hwy. 285 over to Kenosha Pass and down to South Park. I’d been keen to see this part of Colorado ever since I read a magazine writer’s comment that, though he’d been many places in the world, the view down across South Park from the pass was his favorite. Not ever having watched the animated series “South Park,” I didn’t know that it was named after a real place. (There is also a North Park, northwest of Rocky Mountain National Park.) The designation “park” here refers to a broad plateau or basin ringed by mountains.

I stopped to eat lunch at Fairplay, then took state route 9 up through Alma (10,578 feet elev.), and over Hoosier Pass (as it turns out, there are two Hoosier Passes in Colorado, both of them—I presume—originally sited in Indiana, then trucked west and greatly enlarged). A series of hairpin turns on the other side of the pass takes you down to Breckinridge. There were still golden-leafed aspens along 285 east of Kenosha Pass and in Breckinridge; elsewhere, the aspens were mostly bare. Given the abundance of stands on the slopes, it must have looked spectacular a couple of weeks ago. Now I know an ideal driving route for seeing the fall colors in Colorado.

A patch of prairie ~

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Cottonwood tree
Creek along the east side
View to the north
Unidentified prairie plant

These photos were taken at the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area, just south of Fort Collins, Colo. This acreage, which has never been plowed, is bounded by two major roads to the east and west and by housing developments to the east and north. It’s lovely country, but the traffic noise is omnipresent. When I had walked about 15 minutes, it began thundering persistently, so I backtracked to the parking area. I didn’t get photos of the many flowers still in bloom, many of them very small and easy to overlook.

Aspens ~

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Rocky Mtn. Natl. Park
On the Peak-to-Peak Highway
Aspen leaves
South of Nederland, Colo.
Rocky Mtn. Natl. Park

Yesterday I took my sister for a 7-hour drive to see the aspens in their fall colors. We drove from Loveland to Boulder, up Boulder Canyon, down the Peak-to-Peak Highway, up Hwy. 40 to Granby, up Hwy. 34 to Rocky Mountain National Park, and across Trail Ridge Road. We didn’t stop for photos very often, but here are a few.

Bryce Canyon ~

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It isn’t easy to take a truly bad picture of Bryce Canyon, but I managed a great many mediocre ones. These are the best of the lot. At Bryce we reached our highest elevation in Utah; we wouldn’t be at 9,000 feet again until the return trip through Colorado.

 

Zion National Park ~

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Canyon Overlook Trail
Canyon Overlook Trail. Note the railing at left, part of an old bridge that carries hikers over a steep drop off.
Canyon Overlook Trail
Canyon Overlook Trail
Canyon Overlook Trail
Columbine, Riverside Walk
End of Canyon Overlook Trail
Hanging gardens, Riverside Walk
Cliffs along the Virgin River, Riverside Walk
Zion shooting star

I first saw Zion Canyon as a child, and it remains the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. When my companion and I arrived in early May, though, the weather was rainy and foggy, with clouds obscuring all but the very bottom of the canyon. It was still beautiful, with many flowers blooming, the just-leafed-out trees along the Virgin River a tender, bright green, and the red rock of the canyon walls backdropping everything.

The next morning we took the shuttle up the canyon (due to its popularity, this park has been forced to limit vehicles on the canyon drive for all but the winter months).  As the day went by the clouds gradually lifted, but the sky remained mostly gray. We walked the Riverside Walk, a paved trail along the Virgin River, down to the The Narrows, where the river becomes the “trail” because the canyon walls are only about 20 feet apart. The Narrows was off-limits this day due to the high water; hikers sometimes die in this wilderness area because of flash flooding and swift currents. Toward sunset we hiked the Canyon Overlook Trail at Zion’s southeast corner. Without my companion’s help up and down the steep, rocky path, which was sandy, damp, and slick, I could never have made this hike. The view rewards the effort.

Salt Valley ~

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The colors in the soil make this landscape view at Arches National Park into an abstract. I turned a rectangular shot into a square in order to crop out two far-off bits of roadway, which were barely noticeable but which I thought detracted from the abstract effect. I didn’t add any saturation, but I did oversharpen this a little to enhance the “dots,” which are tiny shrubs.