Month: August 2017

This three-photo sequence was taken by panning left-to-right from the Forest Canyon Overlook.  This was around 2pm local time.

That cloud system was moving in from the west and overtook me before I got to the next stop.

As I was walking briskly back to my car I saw this young man walking up to the overlook with his father.  I complimented him on his being properly attired (I was still wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Brrrrrr….).  I continued walking but then went back and asked his dad if I could take his picture.

And I saw this young couple from South Dakota again.  We had been seeing each other at various stops ever since I entered the Park around 1230 local time.  They really cracked me up at our first encounter because she was standing on the grass panning her phone from right-to-left and he was standing right behind her, on the sidewalk which was slightly higher, doing exactly the same thing with his phone.  They moved together in perfect harmony and I wish I had been quick enough to have taken a picture of them while they were doing it.

They were also dressed much more intelligently than I was.

 

When I arrived at Lava Cliffs I was at the highest point on the road through the Park, 12,183 feet.  The temperature had dropped to 39 degrees and it started sleeting.  Yes, SLEETING on August 16 at 217 in the afternoon, local time!

After getting back down to a more comfortable altitude I exited the Park to the west and soon arrived in the little town of Grand Lake, Colorado.  My nephew, Sam, has been working there this summer before heading back to Colorado Springs to start his 4th year of college.  Sam is a Master Electrician and programs all the lighting for various productions being performed at the theater.

Sam and I are going to be having lunch tomorrow but he took a break from what he was doing  today (helping construct props and other stage fixtures) to give me a quick tour.  The production is dark on Sundays but they rotate 3 different shows on the other 6 nights of the week.

This is from the stage looking towards the audience.  The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville wouldn’t let me do this….

And this is the area behind the audience where Sam programs all the lighting instructions based of the script for each show.  He is actually backstage during each performance but is in communication with an assistant who triggers each pre-programmed lighting sequence on cue from this vantage point.

I’ll be coming up to Grand Lake from Breckenridge in a few days to see one of the shows.

This was the view of an area south of my vantage point getting soaked.

After leaving Grand Lake I saw this young lady and her two horses resting in a wildlife viewing area near Granby.  She had been riding one and escorting the other, which is a rescue horse.

As I drove north on Route 125 I saw this shaft of light to my left.  At first I thought it was rain, but after watching it from various angles and comparing it with other rain shafts I decided it is just light, caused by a hole in the thick clouds through which the sun was shining.

Then I noticed an unusual thing to my right.  I had seen the same phenomena a few days ago in southern Wyoming.  Rainbows are generally arcs of color in rain mist which appear to exist on their own.  This was a colorful cloud, with a much wider color band.  I had never seen anything like it before a few days ago and now here is another one!  I’ll be posting the other one when I get some of my picture backlog caught up.

When I got to the little town of Walden and turned right to take Route 14 back to Fort Collins, I noticed this sign which I thought looked really cool.

And as I drove east on Route 14 I noticed a conventional rainbow with a nice mountainous background.

 

As I was traveling north on Route 125 between Granby and Walden, Colorado I passed this wildlife refuge.  Shortly after driving past the entrance I saw a bald eagle sitting on a fence post to my left.

I shifted positions and took more photos

Then shifted again and took some more

Before he left this morning for his daily bicycle ride my Airbnb host Eric asked me what my plans for the day were.  I told him I was going to stop in the Rocky Mountain National Park, not far away, to get a map and get my bearings.  I also wanted to go to Steamboat Springs which is further west of the Park.

He suggested that rather than go through the Park to get to Steamboat that I go north and take Route 14 instead.  He rides his bike up there frequently and said it is a very nice drive.  Boy oh boy was he right!

Route 14 runs along the Cache la Poudre River (ooh la la… it’s French!), which is known for having an abundance of brown, brook and rainbow trout.  The name is from the French phrase which means “Hide the Powder”.  It was so named after a group of French trappers were forced to bury some of their gunpowder along the river bank when stranded by a snowstorm in the early 1820’s.  The locals have taken liberties with the pronunciation and call it “CASH la POO-ter”, or simply “the Poo-ter”.

What follows are just a few (some may think too many) of the amazing things I saw in the first 15 or so miles of Route 14.  It wasn’t on my radar and should have been.  I’m going to write to National Geographic to ask why it wasn’t in their book (which is my bible).

As I started driving down Route 14 I saw this sign and had to stop and get a picture.  It really gave me a good laugh for the day.

Some enterprising person had put stickers on the existing roadside.  I thought it was very clever, and I hope the Transportation Department leaves it as it is.

 

As expected, the venue my Airbnb host had told me about wasn’t open yet, but I did stop to take some pictures.  It is a very unassuming place which wouldn’t really have drawn my attention but for all the signage and the long fence which runs beyond the restaurant itself.

This place is a local legend.  It is the Mishawaka Restaurant & Concert Amphitheater.  Locals call it simply “the Mish”.  It is surprisingly large inside and in addition to serving great food in a beautiful spot along the river, they host music events on stages located both inside and out (behind the fence).  They draw huge crowds and parking is very limited so they shuttle guests in from remote parking spots.

As I was taking pictures a guy, who I presumed was the owner, came outside and asked what I was doing.  I said I was just a simple tourist from North Carolina who had been told about this place and was planning to come back when they were open to eat, as I was told they serve really good food.  You’ll read more about this in my last post of the day.

 

As I was walking back to my car from taking the picture of the road sign I noticed the half moon, high overhead.  Can’t wait to get some pictures of the full moon in a black sky.

As I drove further up the road I saw the guy in black fishing in the river.  His two buddies were still getting prepped near a tunnel through the rock.  I talked with them briefly, then asked the guy you see if I could take his picture before I left (his other buddy was already making his way toward the river to join the guy in black). They were local guys, just out for a fun day fishing.

As I drove further up the road I stopped at a roadside park to use the restroom.  There was another car there with Louisiana plates which I had seen earlier in the day driving past as I was out taking pictures.  As I was walking back to my car he had gotten out with his dog and they were walking towards the river.  We talked for a few minutes.  He had moved to Ft. Collins a few months ago and said he was playing hooky from work, so I didn’t take his picture.  He was a real nice guy and we had a pleasant conversation.

As I drove further up the road I passed a good photo op and went up to find a place to turn around.  As I got to it there was a big white pickup truck doing the same thing.  Well, he turned off at the same spot I was planning to.  They were a young couple from Greeley, Colorado, not far from Fort Collins.  Riley said this was his favorite fishing spot and he had brought his wife, Haley, and their dog Sophie with him to enjoy the day together.  They were real nice kids (Riley said he’s 19) and I really enjoyed talking with them.  They suggested a place further up the road to stop and get breakfast.

I stopped at the place they suggested and ordered sweet creme pancakes with bacon and scrambled eggs to go.  While I waited I visited with a young lady I had parked next to, as well as two of the restaurant employees.  As I walked up to the restaurant I got this photo of some huge flowers.

When I got my food I drove on up the road in search of a picnic table.  I found one at a US Forest Service center just a few miles away.  It was a perfect setting.  A quiet spot in the shade with the scent of a wood stove in use (much more pleasing when you know it isn’t from a wildfire).  After I ate I filled my water bottles with water I had brought with me (theirs was marked as not safe to drink).  Before I left I popped in the building to thank them for a providing nice setting and met the young couple from Houston who were manning the center as volunteers.  They get to camp for free in exchange for working around the facility, and had been there since June.  My former co-worker Shari’s daughter is a state park ranger in North Carolina and had told me about this program that the US Park Service has.  This was a US Forest Service facility and clearly they have the same program in place.  They were just a charming couple and their young son was there too, absorbed in a game on his phone (his mom said a bear had been spotted in the area so she wanted him to stay inside today).

After spending some time visiting with them I resumed my trip up Route 14.

I had explained to the young couple who were working at the Forest Center building that I was driving west towards Steamboat Springs.  While her husband was talking to another visitor who had come in for information, his wife gave me a map of the region and suggested I turn left about 15 miles up the road onto a dirt road where wildlife sightings are often reported.

I drove back that road a few miles, stopping at various points to get out and use my spiffy new binoculars to survey the terrain.  It was getting close to mid-day and I wasn’t sure how much activity I might see, if any.

I drove up and down the road to various stopping points.  Finally, as I was heading back towards the main road here were two moose, a cow and her calf, about 20 yards off the road to my left.

They were much darker than the moose I had seen up in Yellowstone.  They seemed oblivious to my presence and didn’t seem bothered by other cars that passed by.

Eventually some other cars stopped and one guy had a camera with a huge telephoto lens.  As the two moose slowly worked their way to the right I suggested he walk up towards where my car was parked to be looking at them more from the front than the side.  He did, and got some excellent pictures of them looking right at him after they both turned their heads.