Black Canyon of the Gunnison - October, 2017

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is one of Colorado's four National Parks.  The height, or rather depth, of the canyon walls is dramatic.  The Painted Wall goes down about 2000 ft.  The whole park is just one road that has lots of stops at trails and overlooks.  I would compare the road and the beauty to the Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction.

We arrived in the late afternoon and did a few hikes to the overlooks with the kids.  It was a little nerve racking with a 4 year old wanting to climb on the rails with steep drops underneath.  Our last stop was the Painted Wall overlook.  After the sun set behind the hills, the clouds lit up with color making for some nice photographs:

Painted Wall sunburst

Black Canyon Sunset - Prints Available

Fall Color Trip - 2017

The start of October begins the end of the fall season in the high country of Colorado.  I wish this colorful time lasted longer than a couple weeks.  I suppose the short and sweet window of photographic opportunities is what makes it so exciting.  This year, we took a family trip to the San Juans and chose photography locations that would be easily accessible so we could take the kids along for the ride.  We stayed 2 nights at a hotel near Ridgway and 1 night camping in the Uncompahgre National Forest.  The colors overall were a bit dull compared to our visit to this area 3 years ago, but there were still many pockets of bright gold.

This is a big photo dump from the trip.  It's divided into 2 major areas:




Oray/Ridgway/Telluride

 

Crystal Lake near Ouray

Mt. Sneffels

Dallas Divide

Last Dollar Road

Ralph Lauren's Ranch

The Cimarron Mountains

Owl Creek Pass

Precipice Peak

All of these images are for sale as photography prints at http://aaronspong.com/collections/autumn

Ptarmigan Trail - Sept. 2017

Took a one morning (one night) trip to do a sunrise hike/shoot over Silverthorne for the early season colors.  Still lots of green, but lots of yellow and orange too.  Getting geared up for our big "Fall Colors" trip next week!

Sun dancing on Peak 1

Guyselman Peak