Rocky Mountain National Park

My final week in Colorado, began with a short but much needed visit from my Mother. The moon was full and there wasn’t much night shooting to be done. So the timing worked out perfectly for a brief break. Being alone on this trip has been hard, but spending a few days with the greatest Mom on the planet will always lift anyone’s spirits.

After a few days doing the tourist thing it was time to get back to shooting. I met up with a fellow photographer, John Ott (http://www.photographybyjohnott.com/) for some camping and photographing of RMNP. Our first day gave John a look at what I have been facing all summer, cloudy skies and the threat of rain. However, we made the best of it by photographing a movie legend, The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado. If you are not familiar with this particular hotel, it was the inspiration behind “The Shining.” It was not where it was filmed, but where the author stayed when he came up with the idea for the book. Frankly, looking at it from a distance on this cloudy day it was easy to see why.

The Stanley was very cool to photograph, and with clear skies forecasting for the following day, we were excited. We had a very small window, where we would be able to photograph the Milky Way that night. So we formed a plan and did some scouting, before we headed into the park to explore.

We headed through the park via The Old Fall River Road, a dirt road winding through the forests of RMNP. It was a different type of scenery for the Park. Instead of the towering peaks and low valleys, we found creeks, rivers, and waterfalls scattered throughout our drive.

Our last stop on the night was for sunset pictures at a lake close to our camping site. The hope was to photograph sunset and then wait for our brief encounter with the Milky Way, but thats a story for another time!

Thoughts from the road:

Colorado has been my home for the past 3 years, and while I moving on, it will always hold a very large part of my heart, Thank you Colorado!

Music from the Road:

Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd

See all the photos from this trip and Rocky Mountain National Park here!