A landscape photographer's tour - Fairplay

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

Return to South Park

On my way back from Gunnison to Denver I decided to pay another visit to Fairplay. Planning the end of a trip usually involves working back from the fact that I've got to hand the car back early one morning, and thus I tend to stay pretty close to the airport the night before.

Leaving Gunnison, US 50 climbs up over Monarch Pass, and the scenery changes quite noticeably. I thought I'd capture a set of pictures showing the changes, the differing views you get going over some of the high passes.

It starts off fairly arid - we are already at about 8000 feet.

A few conifers start to appear

It's now quite heavily forrested

This view from a stop at a sharp bend shows how far I've climbed so far.

There were bits of car wreckage down below...

With the steep slopes there are truck run off lanes. I think the idea is to see how many buckets you can knock down.

I'm not sure how you are supposed to read all those road signs as your truck hurtles on to the ramp, perhaps afterwards...

A few bits of snow appear

And lots more - nearly there now

This shows some of the snow they get up here

The continental divide is marked on almost any road that crosses it.

Here's one of the ways of clearing the snow

And the view looking East

Meanwhile I stopped off for a coffee in the gift shop, which boasts an impressive range of stuffed animals.

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After a while I got to Fairplay, where the weather was a bit better than my first visit.

This view is looking towards Kenosha Pass, where I stopped off on the way.

Converted to B/W using convert to B/W Pro. one curves layers to enhance sky contrast. The layer was partially masked to stop the foreground becoming too dark

Back in Fairplay I had a quick look at the 'restored' South Park City, which although closed until May 15th, I was allowed to have a look around :-)

More pictures of trains for certain people back in the UK ;-)

This time I'm staying in the Fairplay Hotel.

Unfortunately it's Tuesday and it looks as if I'll miss the open mike spot and back woods review...

This is how my laptop is currently being powered.

I have not seen a light fitting used like this since at my Grandmothers (for the iron) in the 1960's

All seems well.

Now to find a telephone socket to connect to that internet thingy

Note added next morning from a Starbucks in Woodhouse Park -- I did eventually find a telephone socket, it was in the office of the Hotel :-) The site was updated over a 26,600 dialup connection - it took a while ;-) I'm assuming that not many people are following this photodiary with dialup connections!

Next Day >>

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