A landscape photographer's tour

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

More Colorado colours...

Travelling from Grand Lake to Steamboat Springs

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

In Grand Lake, we stayed at the Rapids lodge, which has a rather good restaurant too :-)

rapids lodge, grand lake

We headed off along Hwy 34 past Lake Granby, towards the junction of Hwy 40 at Granby.

Another nice day - not normally my favourite for black and white photography...

granby lake

This is from a large collection of shots that I'll probably have a go at stiching together when I get back.

morning at granby lake

The Wagon Wheel diner at the 34/40 junction

wagon wheel diner

Time for a big US style breakfast

eggs and chicken fried steak

Quite a nice drive - colours turning everywhere (Cottonwoods along the Colorado river)

cottonwoods

On the way up Muddy Pass you get some great views of the changing colours

muddy pass

In Steamboat Springs I noticed that all is not well with the Space Station (much like US access to the real one when the shuttle is retired)

space station gas - steamboat springs

This is what it was like back in 2006 when it was a mere $2.96.9 a gallon and the hills had a light dusting of snow. It's now getting up to $4 (still relatively cheap compared with back in the UK)

Gas price shock

Since it's not far, we went up to Fish Creek falls.

Karen at Fish Creek falls

Note the much smaller flow of water compared with May 2004 below

fish creek falls

Whilst I've had a good look at many of the photos I've taken (on my laptop), it's often not until I see them in detail, or test prints that I know whether an image will 'work'. Some images work well at web size and as a 20"x30" print, while others don't.

I've a lot of new prints (160+) to add to the site gallery when I get back - I'd got it sorted out before coming over to the US, but hadn't quite finished updating all the database that drives the gallery.

The two pictures below were taken along the walk back from the falls

aspen walk

blue sky aspen yellow

We're staying in Steamboat for a couple of days, so I've a few places to have a look at...

The weather forecast is still looking good (it was in the high 70's today)

>> Next Day >>Trip to Steamboat Lake/Hahn's peak

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