Coming in to Breckenridge . . .The Memories

We left the Salt Lake City area today on the last part of our adventure. As we drove through the desert sage areas and mountains around Steamboat Springs, my mind kept thinking about all the things we could do in the one day we have in Breckenridge.  I was thinking about things we have done on other trips.

Rent a bike and take the trails down to Frisco and ride the bus back.

Go over Boreas Pass.

Go to Mount Evans and photograph the mountain goats and mountain sheep.

Ride the train in Georgetown (we have never done that.)

Take one of the lifts to the top of the mountain and walk the trails back to town.

Visit the Breckenridge Recreation Center.

In addition I had been thinking about the things we could do in Colorado "on the way home."

Swing by Rocky Mountain National Park going over Trail Ridge.

Swing by Silverton.

Go to the Malt Shop in Pagosa Springs.

Visit Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs being there at sunrise or sunset.

I walked through a wonderful garden of memories as I thought about things we "could" do, but also realizing that we are due to arrive home on Sunday back in Hutto.  These memories of all these delightful things were done on trips where we were here a week or more.  But remembering things we've done in this area in the past made me grateful for all we have been able to do over the years.

Today's Adventurous Jeep Road

We're not going to be in Breckenridge long this trip, so I wanted to get out and enjoy the mountains this afternoon. We headed up over Boreas Pass, a nice gravel road that we've travelled many times before. We turned off to look at the Selkirk National Forest Campground near the south fork of the Tarryall River. We retraced our steps and found another road to the Tarryall River and decided to see if it lead over the mountains back to the Breckenridge side. The road started pretty much like most jeep roads, calm at first, then getting rockier where you had to be careful where you put your wheels so you don't bottom out. We were doing good . . . until . . . we came to a place where you went up before you went down and you couldn't see what you were doing. Then we weren't moving . . . stuck!



The front wheel had rolled over a steep hole, the center was bottomed, and the passenger rear tire had no traction and just spun.



Our jeep has a winch, but the Trailblazer doesn't. We were wishing for the winch!

We tried rocking it back and forth and while we got a little movement, the hole in front was too large to roll the tire back up.



Henry jacked the car up and put rocks and fallen wood to improve traction - no go.




We had started such that with no problems we should have gotten back to the main road on the other side before dark, but it was late enough in the afternoon/evening that I was concerned that the other travelers might have already gone home. It was obviously a well travelled road - lots of tire tracks. I knew the worse case scenario was that we would spend the night in the car on the mountain. We had water, sweaters and jackets, and a car for shelter. But I hadn't brought snacks. We would be hungry, but we'd be OK.

We thought about trying to hike back to the campground, but that was quite a ways back.

But I couldn't help hoping and praying that some one would pass by, someone with the right equipment or experience to get us unstuck. I could hear planes overhead. Henry thought he saw mountain goats on the nearby peak. And then I heard it, the sound of engines - not a plane in the air, engines on the ground moving our direction. YES! It was two young men on motorcycles. The working solution - they got on the back bumper and jumped up and down - forcing the back tires into contact with the ground. Sigh . . . we were unstuck, but the very next area had another tricky spot - one very easy to get stuck again. Carefully avoiding the tree on the right and the stump on the left and the bigger hole farther to the left, we made it through the muddy water crossing. The next stretch was a very steep uphill - 4 wheel low in low gear, the Trailblazer had no problems with that part.

Once again we were doing good. But then there was this snow drift. We'd crossed several that had appropriate tracks through them going fairly fast so we wouldn't get stuck. But this snow drift blocked the road with only space for motorcycles to follow the road. There was an alternative route through the trees, but it was narrow - with a big stump in the wrong place. In our first attempt we hit the tree on the right. We backed up and Henry tried to put some wood around the stump so we make it over. No . . . stuck again.

We had cell signal here and I got hold of Debra so that someone would know where we were and if we didn't get back in a reasonable length of time, someone could send the calvary to us.

We knew the motorcyclists were coming down behind us, so the contact with Debra was just for good measure. We waited. More wood around the stump and once again two young men on the back bumper rocking the car. Yes . . . past that part. But we had at least one more obstacle to get through - a bog where we could possibly get stuck once more. Our faithful motorcyclists stayed with us. By this point I would hardly call this path a road - dodging big rocks and deep ruts we bounced along. We sailed right through the blog and the next muddy stretch.

The motorcyclists assured us that we could make the rest. It turns out one of the used to work for River Mountain Lodge and lives next to the Resort Quest manager that used to be in charge at River Mountain. I told them that they were guardian angels for us this evening. They told us that they just couldn't leave until they knew we had gotten past the places where we could get stuck.

When we finally got to the gravel road at the Blue River area, I started texting Debra so she'd know we were back in civilization. As I texted her, she called me . . . the Melton telepathy at work. In short order we were back on a paved road and back at the condo!

Now - I'm unlikely to ever take that particular route unless I have the jeep with better ground clearance and winch, or 4 wheelers that are light enough to push out of trouble, etc. But I am so grateful that God always provides for us when we get ourselves stuck somewhere. We've never yet been stuck out in the middle of nowhere having to spend the night in the car unprepared. But next jeep road trip - I'm packing more water and snacks . . . just in case there is a first time to be stuck overnight.

By the way, while we were eating our dinner back at the condo, the front desk called. Andrew, the Resort Quest director, had called them to make sure we had made it home ok. Even far from home, God places us in good hands with caring people.

Colorado's Winter Aspens

One thing a photographer is taught to do is to visualize the photos they want to take before they go on location. For my winter trip, I had several ideas visualized. One of them was a forest of aspen trunks nestled into deep snow. I never really found the scene I was looking for for that winter aspen image. But I did find and photograph aspens in snow. My versions of winter aspens are a little different:









I did find this grove of young aspens and I was intrigued by the patterns of the tree trunks with their shadow lines criss-crossing the photo.



But I think I like this version of the same scene better:

Our first full day in Colorado brought a winter snowstorm. We drove up from Durango toward Silverton and Ouray. I continued trying to play with different types of landscapes with the in camera motion.

I continue to be amazed at the different effects that show up.

Would you say watercolor????



My husband wanted me to experiement with the road signs, both the hairpin turn warnings and avalanche warning signs.
This sign is next to one of the newer mines just north of Silverton. I loved the abstract, charcoal look that showed up here.



I like this one because of the way the zoom action draws your eye to the center trunks. But if I use my imaginations, something is lurking here:





The other effect that sometimes shows up in the images are a natural texture. I am eager to print this one on canvas.



These images are available for viewing in larger versions and for purchase at Mary Ann's View Nature Photography website.

Frisco Wildfire Part II

All over the Rocky Mountains, pine bark beetles are taking their toll on lodge pole pine forests. The red trees in this picture are dying. I'm planning a group of posts about the pine bark beetle, but the fire Saturday in Frisco illustrates the danger that many communities in the Rockies face.



This was really a small fire. Probably started by campers, it burned in a green and moist aspen and cheat grass area rather than hitting the dead pines nearby. However, you can see how close those dead pine trees were to the fire. And the fire started in an area where the firefighters had to hike in to get to it.



Traffic in I-70 was warned that a fire was near and that there might be smoke on the road. I was parked south of I-70. There was a steady stream of residents who pulled up to check on the fire. They were worried. The predictions are that Summit county will lose 95% of the lodgepole pines. While in Breckenridge, the law is requiring homeowners to remove the dead trees, the people I talked with seemed to think there was no plan in place in the national forests to remove the dead trees. The research I've done so far indicates that there is a small window when the trees that are harvested can be used. If you miss the window, the wood has deteriorated too far.




This was the scene at the worst part of the fire. Thankfully, the firefighters were helped by a helicopter with a 100 gallon bucket. By Sunday, only wisps of smoke were left. The damage from the fire was invisible from town. But this is fourth of July week, people are nervous about fireworks and are expecting a burn ban.




From the Summit Daily News comes this warning from Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Berino: "we want people to really be aware of the dangers we are facing this season, and that it is now a matter of when, not if, we will have a big wildfire.”


The fire Saturday only burned a couple of acres. But this is early in the season. As the snow melt ends, and everything dries out in the warmth of summer, the Rockies are a powder keg waiting to erupt.

Frisco Wildfire

My next blog post was going to be the beginning of a series about the issues in Summit County, Colorado dealing with pine bark beetles. However, as I went into Frisco to do some shopping for my condo, I saw a small fire on the mountain just north of I-70. After I made my purchase I went over to investigate. After finding a good vantage point, I spent the next several hours watching the fire, talking with people who live in the area, and photographing the event.







Tomorrow I'll post more of the photos of the fire. I was most impressed with the helicopter pilot. He first carefully surveyed the scene - making several sweeps. Then his first drop intentionally watered the area around the fire. And then he progressively got closer and closer to make very accurate drops where the fire was the hottest.

Tiger Road

One of my favorite areas around Breckenridge is Tiger Road. In the summer it is one of the routes to get high in the backcountry as it goes from pavement to graded dirt to jeep trail.

One winter, I spent a lot of time photographing the creek and a dipper (a small mountain bird that literally walks the bottom of creeks looking for its food) that frequented the area. My photo, Winter Stream, came from the Swan River as it gurgles its way beside the road.

This summer I've been up it a couple of times. I've been rewarded by the evening peaceful time of watching the trout surface, creating small ripples on the beaver ponds. When my kids were growing up, we spent time on our vacations fishing beaver ponds near Silverton. Part of the allure of fishing is getting to be out in a beautiful place, enjoying your surroundings while you are waiting for the fish to bite. While the fish you catch at beaver ponds are small brook trout - they sure taste good at the end of the day.

On our first drive up Tiger Road this year, I just enjoyed being on a jeep trail. I eyed the back country campsites, remembering how much fun it was to camp in a tent, right next to the babbling, gurgling creek. We were also rewarded with two beaver sightings, but they were far enough away that I did not try to bring out the big lens, instead I just watched the first beaver chew off branches of the willow lining his pond and finally take a bunch across the pond. He took that bunch and dove down under water presumably to his home-it was not as obvious as other beaver homes I've seen.

The second night I headed up to the beaver ponds. I pulled out the big lens, hoping a beaver would show. While I was waiting, I was enjoying the fish coming to the surface.



I decided to see if I could actually capture a fish surfacing with the big lens. Amazingly, I did - actually in one of the earlier frames.



Now this is cropped way down, ISO was something like 1600 to get a fast shutterspeed - so image quality is poor. But this is the kind of shot that luck really plays a role. You never know where they're going to surface, so you are never really set up for the shot. And for a memory picture, this is worth a lot to me. But it will never be submitted for publication, contest or stock photography.

I was finally rewarded when the beaver came out.



The original shot had a lot of digital "noise" from the high ISO needed for the lighting conditions. I used the noise reducing filter in photoshop and then went back using the art history brush and brought back out detail in the beaver. It came out better than I expected.

The beaver realized I was there and went under the water. I was at an angle and the water was so clear I could see him swimming below the surface.

He decided to move to some of the other ponds and headed off down one of his trails. I was getting eaten by those wonderful mosquitoes the fish were feeding on. The light was also fading, so we headed back down to civilization.

Water studies

One of the field trips for the NANPA Colorado Regional Event was to the forks at Chicago Creek near the base of Mount Evans. Usually Colorado clouds up in the afternoon, but during the regional event we had good sunny weather the whole time. So I waited for a cloudy day and made my own trip to Chicago Creek.

The creek is surrounded by forest. When I first got there I was afraid it was going to be too dark. Even after the sun peeked out, the valley floor was still pretty dark. But I decided I would see what I could do even with the dark conditions.

I wanted to take several kinds of shots. I wanted the big picture shots, where you could see the creek and its surroundings. You can see what I mean about it being dark - to get the proper exposure, the water is very silky.



Then I wanted to zoom in and see what I could do with the cascades.



I had only taken my 24-105mm lens and I wondered if that was going to be enough to get the intimate landscapes in the creek that I was hoping for. I begin to zoom in closer more detailed shots of the water and the rocks.



It is amazing how going vertical changes the image.



I then zeroed in on a couple of rocks to get an even more intimate landscape. I also played with saturation on this one.



I was fascinated by the natural scallops in the water here.



I stayed in one location quite a while, but decided that I need to check out some of the other areas along the creek to see what else I could find. I followed some of the same techniques - shooting both the larger view and trying to get those intimate landscapes.



Tips for stream and water photography:

Shade or cloud cover is best to avoid getting blown out whites in the water.

Set your camera for aperture priority for the maximum sharpness of your lens. For me that is F/16. The amount of available light will determine how much water blur you will get. In very bright situations you can use a solid neutral density filter to reduce your shutter speed to make the water silkier. For this day I played with the ISO. Normally for landscapes I set the ISO to 100 which is the lowest possible on my camera to avoid noise. However, because the water was getting so blurred out I tried higher ISO's to see if I could get the look I wanted for the water.

Use a polarizing filter. I forgot on some of my shots, but it takes away some of the shine on the rocks bringing out their true color as well as giving more detail in the water.

Tin Cup Pass and the Lost Wimberly Head

We've been in Colorado a week or so now. We're back in areas where I spent time as a teenager. I wanted to go over Cottonwood Pass near Buena Vista and then back over Tin Cup to the Chalk Creek area.

The drive up the Cottonwood Pass was beautiful and uneventful. We went over to Tincup and had lunch at Frenchy's Cafe named after a real person from the 1800's town. Hamburger was great!

We went to the top of Cumberland Pass. You really feel like you are on top of the world seeing the beautiful valley and the mountain peaks surrounding you. We came back to Tin Cup and started on the road to the pass. From Tin Cup to Mirror Lake the road was bumpy but not too bad. I marveled at the people who had taken their trailers and 5th wheels over it. Lots of places to camp - some "official" and some unofficial. The official campground is at Mirror Lake and would be a lovely place to stay sometime. But the road is too rough for us to want to take our 30 ft RV.

After Mirror Lake the road became very much a four wheel drive road. Much of the road was like going over cobblestones - VERY BUMPY. There were lots of areas where you had to go over large rocks or ride the edge with the jeep tilted uncomfortably. We've been over roads like this before. But I still have memories of losing the oil pan at Death Valley, so the big rocks were making me nervous. Plus we've been hearing noises this whole trip that sound suspiciously like suspension issues. I had NOT planned to take the jeep on this kind of road until we had this noise checked out. But on the other hand, this kind of road usually gets you to a beautiful place, and I've been to the top of TIn Cup Pass and I KNOW it is beautiful. So we carefully made our way up. I did hear one very metalic clank, but I assumed it was just a rock that was thrown up under the jeep.

My memory said that the eastern side of the pass was much smoother so I was looking forward to getting to the top and over to the easier passage. However, as we approached to top, we had someone warn us that the pass was closed by a big snowbank. We continued up and made it to the top of the pass. There were wildlfowers and it was beautiful.

As I was finishing up my photos, Henry came over to tell me my tripod was damaged. I looked at the one I was using trying to figure it out. Then he tells me the tripod head is gone. Sigh . . . that is a Wimberly head - current price $599 and I had the leveling base - another $179.00. The photos I was taking today would probably not cover the cost of replacing this equipment. I was hoping to take photos of the bighorn sheep I remember live in a pasture near Chalk Creek. While I can probably make the big lens work on the smaller tripod - it won't be as stable. Henry does not want this to ruin my day. I also remember that "clank" - it must have been when the head fell off.

Well, I guess it is a good thing that the pass is closed - we'll have to back track and perhaps we'll find the tripod head. As we drive along, Henry is both watching the road to navigate those treacherous rocks and to see the tripod. I'm looking out the side in case it rolled off the road into the sage. Out of the blue, a four wheeler passes us and asks if we had lost something. Turns out another four wheeler had found something that he thought was part of a bicycle rack. He was going to take it and turn it in at the "general store." I asked if he meant the store at TIn Cup. He looked puzzled and said he did not know. Well, I had a little hope. And that meant we did not have to watch the road so carefully searching for it. We asked a few four wheelers we saw if they were the ones who found it. No luck.

We got down into Tin Cup - good, the store's door is open. However, the guy outside says, "We're closed." We go ahead and ask about the tripod head. No, they don't have it, but the nice lady takes my name and phone number. She even let me get a couple of drinks and some ice cream. We hang around there for a little bit, hoping we beat the four wheeler down. But it is getting time to go on - so we head on down to Taylor Park. There is also a store there. I see someone being carried in - looks to me like an injured four wheeler - who is beginning to hyperventilate. They start asking for a paper bag. There are three clerks who all look busy. When I finally get to the counter, I tell my story and at first I get a blank response. But then . . . on the far side, another clerk holds up my tripod head! He tells me that the person who found it looked around to find all the parts. I want to thank the person who found it . . . but the clerk says he wouldn't remember him - not someone he knew. Silly, but I hug it close. I've used it to take so many of my favorite photos. It is a necessary and wonderful tool - something I thought was going to be lost forever - is now found.

To me, this is an example of humanity at its finest. While the finder thought it was part of a bike rack - it was an expensive piece of equipment. It could certainly have been sold on EBAY. But this was not only an honest person, but a thoughtful one as well. Knowing it looked important, he made sure he got all the pieces and turned it in in a place where it could be found.

Since I can't think this person myself, I can at least ask God to send him some special blessing. And, the best I can do, is to be sure I help some other stranger down the road.

P.S. The tripod and Wimberly head will NOT ride on the back of the jeep next time we do a jeep road!

P.P.S. The photo is straight out of camera. When I get home and get my photoshop installed again, I'll post a worked version.

John Fielder and the Roxborough State Park Field Trip

When I became serious about doing something with my photography, one of the first books I picked up was John Fielder's Photographing the Landscape - The Art of Seeing. This was a formative book for me because it thoroughly explored both the technical aspects of composing, using light and color, etc and the creative areas.

On Wednesday, I chose his workshop because of the concept of photographing the "intimate landscape." It sounded like an interesting location - one I had not visited. John gave us a workshop and slideshow presentation before we did our hike around the park. It refreshed my memory of all the concepts I remembered from the book. He personally led us through Roxborough State Park. He and his assistant took time to look through our viewfinders to help us improve our compositions, as well as making suggestions to help us "see" those lines and shapes to make our shots more satisfactory.

John also gave the keynote speech this afternoon. I am very impressed with how he has combined his marketing background, his photography skills, and his genuine concern for the well being of the environment in Colorado. He brings a keen analytical mind to find solutions for some of the environmental issues facing our country today - and has shown a creativity in finding workable solutions. '

I would thoroughly recommend doing any of John Fielder workshops, because I think you would learn a lot and come away very inspired to create your vision of your world.