A landscape photographer's tour
Delta

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

Gunnison

Actually Delta is quite a nice looking place, but it's just that I was expecting a bit more to do on a Friday night :-)

I took a few shots as I was driving out (~8 am)

And the 'Classic' used car lot

Of course if I really wanted that 1970's handling, this would be the place to go.

Compared to these, the 'barge' probably performs like a rally car :-)

I took CO-92 out of Delta and headed east towards the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. On the road up to the canyon there is a good view of what I take to be a volcanic plug (core of an old volcano)

If it was in Europe, someone would have built a castle on it :-)

I went to the canyon two years ago, but only visited the south rim (picture).

It really is difficult to convey the scale of the canyon with these small images, but it's nearly 2000 feet down to the water.

When you visit places like this you do have to accept that some views, however impressive may not make good photos. I'm sure lots of people every year are disappointed by their photos of the Grand Canyon. Part of the knack in my particular approach to landscape photography is being able to spot what -might- make a good photograph :-)

The north rim is less developed and probably gets a lot less visitors, however the overlooks are at least as good as those on the south, and if you continue east on CO-92 the views of the canyon are much better (you are riding along the north side of the canyon for much of the way.

The image was stitched in Photoshop CS2 from 4 overlapping vertical images (24-70 lens) If you are careful to rotate the camera carefully there is no need for a tripod ... of course for panoramic shots, it does help.

One final point, it seems that old cars being driven by people wearing hats are just as slow and prone to erratic behaviour as in the UK. This particular car kept its indicators on for several miles :-)

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