Woke up at 5:30 am to an 18 degree temperature, clear skies, and a fresh skiff of snow on the ground. Thank the heavens that we did not camp out at Lost Lake last night. We dressed warmly and headed out to try sunrise on Gothic Road at Gothic Mountain.
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| Gothic Mountain Sunrise |
While photographing sunrise/sunset in socked in conditions is futile, sunrise/sunset photography in clear skies with no clouds is not much better. Nonetheless we figured it was worth shot. We knew we were at the right spot when we came upon of gaggle photographers on the banks of East River in front of Gothic Mountain. The photography turned out to be a bit better than I had anticipated. The river provided some nice foreground to Gothic Mountain and as I explored further up the road, I discovered the perfect beaver pond providing nice reflection of the mountain in all its colorful glory. I also came across what looked like some bobcat tracks in the fresh snow. Pretty cool.
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| Slade River Valley |
After the shoot, we ran in to Rick's photog friend, Jimmy Gekas and a couple of his buddies, Max and Glen, also from San Diego, and chatted for a bit, comparing notes on the prospect of colors throughout the area before we went back to the hotel to check out. We then went into Crested Butte to get a delicious coffee (Portland, you've got some serious competition) and breakfast sandwich at a small shack call "Camp 4 Coffee", sent the truck through its second car wash (it was so filthy from Kebler Pass, that even I couldn't stand it), and repair yet another fuse before heading up Slade River Road to see some more colors.
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| Fall Colors from Slade River Road |
Clearly the cold temps and snow did some damage to the aspen as the colors of somewhat were more muted than yesterday and some were just plain brown, frozen dead. Too bad but that's the breaks . . . and there was still a considerable amount of color. We went back up Washington Gulch Road and then up again Kebler Pass to see what the cold weather did to those aspen. Some stands were also affected, especially next to open areas, but there were still plenty of good-looking stands.
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| It's Pittsburgh . . . without the"h" |
We then headed back to Crested Butte, where we were going to meet up with Jimmy, Max, and Glenn, and also Brent who was traveling out from Denver to begin his 9-day fall colors tour. Rick and I sat outside at Brick Oven in 50 -degree temps (in the sun that is fairly warm) and drank a beer waiting for the others to show. After all arrived, we visited a while and then took off for Kebler Pass, again, to shoot sunset at MP 11. Despite the lack of clouds, we had some very interesting light so that it made even the huge stands of very green aspen look gold. There was quie the cluster of photogs creating almost a carnival atmosphere. Brent who I swear is only 2 degrees separated from knowing anyone saw familiar faces in the crowd and made introductions all around and it became quite the social event.
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| Sunset at MP 11 on Kebler Pass |
Afterwards everyone headed back to Crested Butte, while Rick and I headed up to our camp site at Lost Lake. We checked to make sure that we still had the site earlier that day and the host said he figured we didn't show because of yesterday's snowstorme. Nonetheless he kept it reserved for us so we had a place to go. After a campfire and some wine, we hunkered for what appeared to be another cold night.
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