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A landscape photographer's tour
Keith's travels in the Colorado Rockies - September-October 2008
Gunnison to Salida and the Sand dunes
Stopping off at the Great Sand Dunes National Park| This photo-diary covers a driving tour around the Colorado Rockies in the Fall (September/October 2008).
Although my third visit to the state, it's actually the first time I've been in Colorado at this time of the year. A good year for the Fall colours. There are also photo-journals on this site covering a 2006 trip to Colorado and two to the Pacific coast.. There are lots of excellent photo books by people who've had a bit more time to look round than I have, such as this one by John Fielder... (lots of places I didn't get to). |
Since I'm not on my own, it's a bit more of a road trip and not quite so heavily phototgraphy oriented as before ;-) That said, I'm getting some excellent photos and look forward to creating some great new prints, black and white as well as colour.
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.
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Daily pages
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We travelled east from Gunnison and turned dow CO114 towards Saguache
The Volcanic rocks give a distinct type of landscape.
A Map of where we were - click the 'TER' buttton to get a feel for where the hilly bits are :-)
View Larger Map
More shots from my assistant :-)
At lower levels the Cottonwoods are still brightly coloured, although many aspens have now lost their leaves
So, on to US285 heading south
A big wide flat plain, with not much rain - the San Luis valley is a good place for solar energy
There was a distinct haze from dust in the air, and getting nearer to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, you could clearly see it being blown along.
The wind was gusting to 50mph, more than enough to move the sand at dune crests (picture is a crop of a shot from about a mile away)
The dunes are huge - note people for scale.
Very windy, this was a flowing creek last time I was here. I do normally teach people to keep their shadow out of the picture...
With the blowing sand (look at the tips of the dunes) it was somewhat hazy, but the clouds make interesting patterns on the dunes.
This was in April 2004, when the Medano Creek was in full spate
After leaving, we had to stop for Karen to retrieve some important items from the back of the car.
We've stopped off in Salida
A conveniently placed kerbside flag helps locate the car
And a pleasant coffee shop (Karen not shown due to bead shop next door ;-)
We're now in Salida and heading north on Saturday.
This probably marks the end of the daily blog, since it takes a while to do each day and we're going to have a few days 'holiday' before coming back on the 14th ;-)
Depending on the weather and where we go, there will be a few more pages, but they may be delayed a day or so.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions - hope you've found the pages of some interest :-)
>> Next Day >>Salida to Frisco
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