A landscape photographer's tour
Pikes Peak

Heading back towards Denver from Fairplay, I decided to have a look at Pikes Peak, Whwere there is a road to the top...

Keith's travels in Colorado - April-May 2006

In 2004 I took my then fairly new Canon 1Ds camera on a driving tour round the Rockies in the USA. This photo-diary covers my second driving trip around Colorado in April/May 2006. This collection of photography and comments has been re-written to make it easier to follow than the original (big) web page. On my return to the UK, I wrote a more technical article about the photographic aspects as a follow up to my original "Keith's first all digital visit to the Rockies"

What's the weather like? National Weather Service radar Webcams What are the roads like?	Daily pages 27th April London-Denver 28th April South park 29th April Leadville 30th April Aspen 1st May Aspen 2nd May Steamboat Springs 3rd May Steamboat Springs 4th May Steamboat Springs 5th May Delta 6th May Gunnison 7th May Gunnison 8th May Gunnison 9th May Fairplay 10th May Pikes Peak and back to Denver

Back to Denver

At last it's time to head back to Denver to get a flight to Chicago and then back to London. I left the Fairplay hotel pretty early and headed south towards Hartsel on CO-9. There I turned East on US 24 towards Colorado Springs. This was the route where I first headed into the mountains a couple of years ago, on my first trip to Colorado.

The long straight road heads towards Wilkerson Pass.

It's the place I took a similar photo, but with much better clouds.. (picture in gallery)

Last time it was cold, cloudy and icy up on the pass, with frost and rime coating the trees. I wasn't expecting to see the pass with its own bit of cloud this time, but I was greeted with a particularly stunning view of low sunlight shining through wisps of fog/cloud.

I took quite a few shots here and have just selected one to give an idea of what it was like. I've also included a detail view to give a better idea of the effect

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After a mighty US breakfast (it's 5pm now and I'm only just feeling a bit hungry), I went to the Starbucks in Woodhouse Park, where they had free wireless access. A bit easier than out at Fairplay - someone at the coffee shop pointed out that Fairplay still had its mail delivered by Pony Express :-)

Checking my email

Just under the Starbucks sign is Pikes Peak, which I decided to visit, since it is the ideal Keith type of mountain -- they have built a road to the top (just over 14,000 feet)

Here's a better view

Unfortunately it had snowed overnight, so the road was only open to about 11500 feet - at least it only cost $5 instead of $10 :-)

It's a steep climb, but the barge seemed quite happy

Before long some snow, and wet unpaved road.

The barge, being rear wheel drive, was quite slippy on some of the hairpin turns.

Big snow clearer

End of the road...

I went into the gift shop for a drink.

Just then they decided that it was clear to go further (the road was paved for another mile or so)

Then, up above the tree line

You can just see the line of orange cones marking how far you can go.

And the view...

The view towards the edge of the Rockies and Colorado Springs (well known enclave of reason, liberal thought and the US Airforce Academy)

Here's a panoramic view stitched from 12 pictures (70mm - portrait orientation)

The best view of the other direction is from when I turned back down.

The thin line of snowy peaks on the horizon are those west of Fairplay and are almost 100 miles away.

So there you have it... out of the mountains, up I-25, skirt round Denver, to a motel near the Airport. This time I even have a good wireless signal in my room.

The $5 I saved at Pikes Peak went on a car wash, since the Barge was looking decidedly muddy after those roads up the mountain, and I didn't want to be charged some ridiculous amount for cleaning the car by the rental agency (they are like that)

Tomorrow I'm off, so this is really the end of my Photo-diary. Hope you have found it interesting/amusing.

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For Steve, who I know is interested in the varieties of electricity pylons you see when abroad.

Who needs lights to control traffic at roadworks when you have a supply of inexpensive labour.

One of the difficulties you sometimes get on US Freeways, is which lane to choose?

A better stitched version of the wide street at Gunnison, after I realised that I had a copy of some specialist stitching software on my laptop.

Well almost... I got an extra 2 1/4hrs waiting in the plane at Denver airport, due to bad weather at Chicago. At least I had a nice view of the mountains out of the window.

Here are some of my fellow travellers :-)

Now I'm back and have just been asked to provide some pictures for an exhibition next week!

THE END (Photo 'Blog' Index - Trip to Colorado, Fall 2008)

27th April>>28th April>>29th April>>30th April>>1st May>>2nd May>>3rd May>>4th May>>5th May>>6th May>>7th May>>8th May>>9th May>>10th May

More Travel blogs

October 2008 - Travelling in Colorado (picture from 'Photo-blog')	'Cascade Colours' from Keith's Autumn 2007 visit to Oregon/Washington
Fall 2010 - Visit to the USA, Pacific Northwest	The North Californian coast - part of Keith's April 2007 tour