Dream Lake in the dead of Winter (Rocky Mountain National Park)

Winter in the Rockies are magical – yes any time of season can be defined as magical so what makes the winter different? For me it is the dead silence that envelopes one of our nations most populated/visited national parks. In the summer I’d probably encounter one, if not two other people, on the trails pre-dawn but in the winter….not a single soul. It is just me and the watchful eyes of the elk wondering what the hell it is that I’m doing that early when it is this damn cold!?!

Regardless of the temperatures there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing the light hit the peaks as daybreaks on the Rockies. I only wish that during these trips I knew better how to use my GoPro because I would have taped it to a tree and captured the movement of the sun over the mountains as the day announces itself.

Sprague Lake (Rocky Mountain National Park)

We should have already landed in Cape Town a week from now for the start of our African Vacation. We’ve been planning it for almost a year and a half and it is finally here – crazy how it sneaks up on you as we still have a lot to finish up this week in preparation to be gone for over two weeks.

The image below is from one of my favorite and easiest landscape photography spots in Rocky Mountain National Park. An easy trail winds around the lake from the parking lot and brings you to this spot which – in the summer – has these two rocks prominently occupying the foreground of the image. I know I’ve posted a lot of Sprague Lake shots in the past but the blue sky in this one and clouds reflecting in the lake make it one of my favorites for non-sunrise/sunset times of day.

Clouds over Long’s Peak (Rocky Mountain National Park)

I spent a cold morning taking pictures of Hallett’s Peak over Dream Lake. As the sun rose and the late morning hikers gathered I started my descent down the trail. On my way down I gazed over at Long’s Peak and noticed the unique cloud formation building above it. I unpacked my camera gear and waited a few minutes as the clouds passed over top of the highest mountain in Boulder County (rising to 14,259 feet).

I’m not sure what kind of cloud it is – does anyone have any ideas? I thought it was lenticular at first but think those build vertical up through the sky and these clouds seemed pretty flat.

First Light at Emerald Lake (Rocky Mountain National Park)

I came down with a pretty nasty cold last week that took me out of commission for a few days. I’m finally feeling a bit better today which is good because I’ve got a bunch of travel coming up the next three weeks. No personal trips mixed in there though so will have to keep drumming up old travel photos like this one from Rocky Mountain National Park during the summer of 2014. I was with my wife vacationing after a business meeting and woke up one morning to make the 3.5 mile round-trip hike to Emerald Lake.

The easily accessible trailhead, Bear Lake Trailhead – the busiest in the park, is often over crowded by 10 AM so if you plan on going hiking here be sure to get there early or just plan on parking in one of the remote parking areas and taking the shuttle to the trailhead. Alternatively, you can hike to this spot by adding some distance if you start at the Bierstedt Lake Trailhead. The trail is well maintained and takes you by two other lakes – Nymph Lake and Dream Lake – as it winds through pine and aspen trees.

I scouted this location out the day before when my wife and I hiked up to this spot. I envisioned framing the shot with this funky looking dead tree anchoring the foreground. If there were only a few more colorful clouds in the sky this shot would have been perfect but the clouds weren’t picking up the sun the same way the peaks of the mountain were.

View from the Ute Trail (Rocky Mountain National Park)

I took this shot during my trip to the Rockies back in August (2014). One of my clients out there had just had me over at his house for dinner with him and his wife. Earlier in the day we hiked all the way up to the top of Hallett Peak which is still the highest elevation I’ve ever been outside of an airplane at 13,000+ feet above sea level.

The Ute Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park is unique because the majority of it sits above the treeline (11,000 feet in the Rockies) which allows expansive views along the entire route.

Rocky Mountain Elk (Rocky Mountain National Park)

There are a ton of elk/deer in Rocky Mountain National Park and on my last trip there I spent an hour or so watching a herd of them near the Fall River entrance station near the Sheep Lakes. I kept a respectable distance but was able to get reasonably close to them as I walked a wide circle from the main road and came up behind them next to the lake they were drinking out of.

We are off to the Smoky Mountains this week on Wednesday for a few days and hoping to see some good fall color. To my surprise this is the most popular time of year in the Smokies (I figured it’d be summer) so everyone must be as interested in the fall leaves as I am.

Sunrise on Long’s Peak (Rocky Mountain National Park)

I’m on a crazy travel schedule this week as I’ll be on planes all week long. I’m starting the week in Dallas before going to Los Angeles then back to Dallas then up to Calgary and finally back to Chicago (via Los Angeles on an overnight flight) so I can get home Friday morning before my family from Michigan comes to visit. I was supposed to run the half marathon this weekend but had to cut my training short because of foot and ankle problems in both feet. I’m resting until March and then will start to run again…it’s going to be a long, brutal winter but I was really having problems walking because of the pain so it is a necessary rest.

A few months back, during my final ‘work’ trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, I drove up Rainbow Curve in the park and parked the car in order to get this angle to the sunrise over Long’s Peak. It was chilly and there weren’t many people on the road so it made for a nice peaceful morning (and I didn’t have to get up three hours before sunrise to get here…always a plus!)

Dream Lake at Midnight (Rocky Mountain National Park)

Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.

~Inception

Over the winter I spent a long night out taking pictures on a windy and freezing night in Rocky Mountain National Park. I shivered most of the night and at times couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes but damn it was pretty. There is really something about the stars that brings a peace over me. I don’t know what it is but it has a real calming affect on my soul.

Sunset over the Mummy Range (Rocky Mountain National Park)

During my last trip (and possible last trip for quite some time) to Rocky Mountain National Park in February I hiked up to the top of a hill over looking Trail Ridge Road which gave me tremendous views of the Continental Divide and the Mummy Range. For awhile it didn’t seem like the sunset was going to give me too much to work with but then all of a sudden the sky lit up and it was as bright as it was during the day. The colors all around the valley and over tops of the mountains was out of this world. I snapped shots for what felt like ten minutes before the color subsided.

The Mummy Range is a (relatively) short range – around 13,000 feet – in Rocky Mountain National Park that is aptly named because if you look at it just right you can sort of see the face of a mummy laying on his back in the shape of the peaks. I never really noticed the shape of it until someone pointed it out to me but now when I look at it I see it plainly – it’s all in the imagination.

Hallett Peak over Sprague Lake (Rocky Mountain National Park)

After taking in sunrise at Dream Lake I stopped at Sprague Lake to take some pictures of the Continental Divide and my favorite peak in the park – Hallett Peak. Last year I climbed to the top of this – 12,713 feet the highest I’ve ever been – and the view from the top is spectacular.

Seeing that it was the middle of the day I converted the image to black and white since the light wasn’t too impressive. I liked the imposing size of the mountain against the wispy cloud streaking across the sky.