A landscape photographer's tour

Keith's travels in the Colorado Rockies - September-October 2008

In the Steamboat Springs area

A quick drive up to Steamboat lake and the Hahn's Peak area - no shortage of fall colours.

Colorado is a great place for a vacation, or just a road trip round the state to photograph some of the scenery. If you've any questions about the hotels/inns/motels where I stayed, then please do feel free to drop me a line.

What's the weather like? National Weather Service radar Geological maps Webcams What are the roads like? (CO)	Daily pages 27th Sept.: to Denver 28th Sept.: Estes Park 29th Sept.: Rocky Mountain National Park 30th Sept.: Grand lake to Steamboat Springs 1st Oct: Steamboat Lake 2nd Oct: Steamboat to Leadville 3rd Oct: Leadville to Aspen
	4th Oct: Aspen and Castle Creek 5th Oct: Aspen to Ouray 6th Oct: Telluride 7th Oct: Durango via Silverton 8th Oct: Durango to Gunnison 9th Oct: Ohio Pass 10th Oct: Gunnison to Salida 11th Oct: Salida to Frisco 12th Oct: Loveland Pass 13th Oct: Via Mt Evans (almost) 14th Oct: Flying home

This morning we took a short drive North of Steamboat Springs, up to Steamboat lake and Hahn's Peak

The cottonwoods give an idea of the colours to expect.

Lines of them along rivers and creeks

With Aspens on the hillsides

Not much further on I was pleased to that one of the more enlightened local residents was still around.

This photo is actually from my last visit - this time there was someone in a checked shirt and wearing a hat standing nearby, so I decided not to pass the time of the day or photograph them...

Further on we had to slow down for a car having difficulty with an incline.

The pic is with the GX200 through the windscreen, the larger one below is a (sharpened) 100% crop

One to keep for all those that say I should wash my car more often (it rains frequently enough for my liking)

How to build a log cabin...

When pulling off the road to take photos, I do have to remember to give Karen advance warning - particularly if it's not going to be a good idea for her to try and get out of that side of the car ;-)

The colours really are quite impressive.

When I'm looking at making prints of any of these pictures, I'm going to be very careful with the colour management. There are colours in the image below that are out of gamut for the A98 colour space and my monitor, but can be printed.

And some more...

Just to remind people, this is what it looks like in the Spring

but today, the sun is out...

The two images above are taken with the GX200 (64ISO RAW)

The Eye patterns on the Aspen trunks vary across the State, with differing types of Aspen

...and some more

It's a bit more cloud today.

After getting back to Steamboat, we went up to the Ski Village in Steamboat, where there appears to be considerable reconstruction going on.

There are also some 'traffic circles' (or roundabouts as we call them)

These should always be approached with caution in the US, since they are uncommon enough that you can expect a significant number of people not to yeild (give way) when approaching them.

The building style in parts of the 'Ski Village' is somewhat reminiscent of 1970's Eastern European 'Concrete'. No statues of Lenin hailing a cab here though.

Presumably a dusting of snow helps alleviate some of the drabness :-)

Guess I won't be staying here for the skiing

Tomorrow it's heading south...

>> Next Day >> Steamboat to Leadville

27th September >>28th September >>29th September >>30th September>>1st October>>2nd October>>3rd October>>4th October>>5th October>>6th October>>7th October>>8th October>>9th October>>10th October>>11th October>>12th October>>13th October>>14th October

Other travel blogs

Fall 2010 - Visit to the USA, Pacific Northwest	'Cascade Colours' from Keith's Autumn 2007 visit to Oregon/Washington
The North Californian coast - part of Keith's April 2007 tour	The photo above is a sample from Keith's photo-diary of his 2006 visit to Colorado