Colorado

I'm afraid this has not been a very productive week for me photographically. I spent a lot of time looking for birds I couldn't find, visiting friends and relatives, and a little recovering.

I'm still not 100% sure if it was a bout with IBS or a bug I caught. I didn't eat very carefully last weekend. When I stay at other people's homes I usually just eat what they put in front of me. Most of the time I come out of it without too much trouble. However, Monday night at my cousin's house in Boulder (I did finally get in touch with him and we had a nice visit) I spent an hour or so in the bathroom. I managed to keep it all flowing the correct direction but it was close. I felt OK in the morning so I thought it was most likely due to what I'd been eating, but as the day progressed I felt more and more tired and achy with very little apatite. I've never had that with IBS before. I just hope my cousin didn't get it. (You OK Dave?) The good news is that after one good night's sleep I felt almost back to normal on Wednesday. Other than sea sickness that was the only illness I've had to deal with on this trip. Thank you Lord.

I was at Rocky Mountain National Park Tuesday and Wednesday. I got pretty frustrated there though. the main scenic road in the park was closed for the season. That didn't leave me with much to shoot in the way of landscapes. There were a lot of elk though and I got a few shot of them.

Black-billed Magpies are common pretty much all over the west. They seemed to be pretty tame here so I though it was high time to get some decent shots of them. These qualify as decent but I hope to get some better ones. I guess I'll have to do that soon or I'll have to wait till next trip.

As I came into Colorado I e-mailed some area birders for some bird finding information. I got lots of suggestions but they all said I was looking at a bad time of year. I did a lot of looking but no finding. Finally I decided I probably had a few more years left in my life and I could afford to wait until I can come back when the birds are easier to find. Much less frustrating that way.

When I'm tired I tend to make bad decisions. I've been pretty tired in general lately and looking back I could have planned the last month or so much better. I've done a lot of zig-zagging around the state of Colorado. Not very efficent. Thursday was not exception. I got tired of RMNP and I knew I could find some good photos at The Great Sand Dunes NP so I just drove down there. It was further than I thought. Oh well. I did have a good time down there.

Since I didn't get photos of a lot of places I thought I would just show you a lot of photos of the places I did photograph. Last time I was there the setting sun lit the dunes up beautifully. Somehow it wasn't quite as dramatic this time around. I did however, climb to the top of the dunes before sunrise the next morning and I got some really nice shots.

While I wasn't photographing the dunes in the evening I spent some time on the Mule Deer. I was amazed at the number of trophy sized bucks around there! They were all fairly tame too.

A group of Pronghorns also gave me some photos.

Friday morning I needed to head back up north to my old friend Char's place near Colorado Springs. I took a scenic route through Phantom Canyon. It was a very pretty drive with a lot of places to camp along the way. I wish now that I had taken advantage of one of them because the campground I was heading for turned out to be closed, and I got there well after dark. I did finally find a campsite but it wasn't easy in the dark.


Saturday morning I drove up Pikes Peak. Do you see the dark line of "clouds". I think that must be smoke from the fires in California.

Pikes Peak didn't take long so I also stopped at The Garden of The Gods. You can hardly go to Colorado Springs without a stop there. I grabbed a couple shots and headed on to Char's.

Some of you might remember Char Carter. The last time I was in Colorado was for her wedding. She married Mark Sellers and they now have two boys, Ryan who just turned one and Carter who is two. The boys really keep their parents hopping.

It's Sunday morning now and I plan to go to church with the Sellers'. They go to an Anglican church that they really like. It should be good. I'm looking forward to it.

From here I plan to head for New Mexico. The original plan had me ending my trip at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and I think I can still do that. I figure I could be down there by Tuesday and on my way back to Michigan by the end of the week. It's hard to believe this trip is that close to over. In fact, my next blog update should come from home.

One movie quote that keeps coming to mind is from Blade Runner. The main bad guy feels like he's about to die and he starts talking about his life. He says "I've seen thing that you can only imagine". Not that I want to rub it in or anything, but I have seen a lot that other people can only imagine. I've got all these memories in me that I can never fully share with anyone. I can show you pictures and tell you stories but it's not like being there. It's been a good trip. Pray that I can end it on a high note and that I can make it home safely. Until next time, the last time, take care.

Steve

Utah Plus

I decided not to spend a lot of time in Utah. Not that I couldn't find enough to photograph there. As usual, I feel like I only skimmed the surface. I moved on from there for a number of reason . Not the least of which are that I'm feeling poor and tired. The gas prices, truck repairs, and extra travel... along with all the miles of driving are finally catching up with me. I spent a few days at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and moved on to Colorado.


I started out at Arches. Don't be surprised if you find some of these scenes in your calendars, cards, puzzles... You see them everywhere. That made it a challenge to come up with something original.


I was elbow to elbow with a bunch of other photographers for this shot of Delicate Arch at sunset. Look familiar?


This view is at least a little different. The little things to the left of the arch are people.


This is Landscape Arch at sunrise.


I climbed up on a big rock to get this view.


The shots above are from arches as well.


Canyonlands is a larger park than Arches with a lot of big panoramic views.


They do have some arches though. This is Mesa Arch. The early morning sun lights up the underside of it. Look familiar?


Here's a somewhat different view.


And here's a very different view. I held the legs of my tripod, lowered the camera down between some rocks and shot up at it.


I met these young German ladies at Mesa Arch They are on a trip around the world. I know they've already been to Guatemala and I know they plan to go to New Zealand among other places. I gave my card to one of them (I never got their names) and she said she would send me a link to her blog. I hope she does even though it's in German. I can always look at the pictures.


This coyote got a little too comfortable with traffic. It just layed down in the road.


This flock of Chukars gave me a lot of photo opportunities.


On the way out of Canyonlands I took a "road" called the Schaffer (sp) Trail over to Moab. The scenery was great but the road itself was punishing. It has to be the roughest road I've ever been on.


Here's a view of the Colorado River from the trail.


The town of Moab has some interesting things right near by like these dinosaur tracks.


And lots of petroglyphs.


The next stop was Colorado National Monument. It was nice, but not great. Sort of like Utah in need of steroids.


The next stop was The Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park. A few years ago I found the park disappointing. That was in March and a lot of the roads were closed off due to snow. It was much better this time around.


They call this The Painted Wall. Those are small trees in the upper right corner not grass. The canyon is very deep.


This juniper tree caught my eye at sunrise.


Mule deer are common there.


I found this track on a trail within a quarter mile of the visitor center. I thought the people there would be interested in knowing they had a Mountain Lion that close, but all I got was "yeah, we have them here". Other parks I've been in had warnings posted Mountain Lions. These folks didn't seem to care. Pretty disappointing.


I'm now at my nephew's house in Conifer, near Denver. Ben and his wife Ashley have two kids. Avery who will be three next month and Adeline who will be one. It's been good to once again talk to someone I didn't just meet. The last time I did that was at Roy's down in Hollywood, in June. It's also been fun with the little kids. Last night I got treated to Little Einsteins on television, and there are always toys to be played with.

This morning I woke up in a nice warm bed and I had a hot shower. Doesn't sound very adventurous does it? Am I fraternizing with the enemy? Maybe, but for now, this comfort is doing wonders for my tired. Not to worry, I'll be back to adventure soon enough.

This week I plan to spend some time at Rocky Mountain National Park and I have a few more birds that I can look for too. I got in touch with some local birder and they gave me some places to look. I was supposed to be able to find a couple of them in the Black Canyon area but I had no luck with that there. Hopefully I'll do better up here.

I have a cousin in the Boulder area but I haven't had a lot of luck reaching him. Maybe I'll be able to connect with him some time this week and next week I hope to get together with friends down in Colorado Springs. I'll report on how that goes next time.

Last week I went to a church that meets in a theater. It was sort of an alternative church. I saw a lot of tattoos and piercings. There's a need for Churches like that but I just didn't feel comfortable there. I guess I can't expect to feel comfortable everywhere. This morning I went to Belleview Community Church down in Denver with my nephew's family. Church was good but the roads were snow covered and slippery. They had bad news there too. A single mother in the church died in a car accident that morning. You can pray for her four kids and for the rest of the church.

Take care until next time.

Steve