A landscape photographer's tour

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

Loveland Pass and Frisco

A quick trip up Loveland Pass from Frisco.

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.

	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
What's the weather like? National Weather Service radar Geological maps Webcams What are the roads like? (CO)	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

We're having a bit of a break from travelling long distances, before coming back home. Although the weather forecast predicted several inches of snow last night, there was only a light fall higher up the mountains.

On the way to Loveland Pass we passed the Arapahoe ski area, where they are using snow machines to get a ski run open.

arapahoe basin

A contrast enhanced 100% crop from the image above, showing one of the snow machines and footsteps of someone who had to go up and fire them up.

snow machine, arapahoe basin

Loveland pass is just over 12,000 feet - very cold and windy (although nowhere near as bad as in winter)

This is where it is...

View Larger Map

Here's Karen, wearing two coats and a hat.

Karen saunders at loveland pass, colorado

And here I am...

Keith Cooper at loveland pass, colorado

Coming back along I-70, we came through the Eisenhower Tunnel.

i-70 eisenhower tunnel

40 years ago, you'd have had to go over Loveland Pass to head west.

Back in Frisco I went out for a cup of coffee, and spotted this butterfly making the most of the sunshine.

butterfly on grass - Frisco

I looked round and for a moment thought Karen's sister had joined us... :-)

Karen and her friend

In a small park in Frisco, there are loads of these things hanging from trees - some Halloween related activity...

thing in tree

And in other news, I was interviewed by a local TV station when up at Loveland Pass and I was pulled over by the police for running a stop sign at a shopping centre :-)

Unfortunately, my TV interview was trumped by a lady who had never seen snow before :-)

However, if you watch this, I make a brief appearance towards the end :-)

Note to my Mum ... Click the picture and make sure the computer sound is on!
There is a short advert and then the main news item.
My brief appearance is 1 minute and 49 seconds in from the start

>> Next Day >> Back towards Denver, to come back to the UK on Tuesday

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