I had three days and two nights to see as much as I could on my first solo adventure. I prepared my truck the best I could with the right gear and supplies to give myself the most ease of mind I could muster to focus on photography. The plan was pretty simple; I wanted to see Monument Valley and see that famous stretch of road I remember so distinctly from Forrest Gump. Along the way, I also wanted to visit Four Corners and Mesa Verde National Park.

I headed out bright and early to avoid as much traffic as I could getting out of Denver. It didn't take too long for what little traffic there was to thin out as I got further and further into the Rockies. On a whim, I decided to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park as it wasn't too far out of the way and I was hoping to see snow on the surrounding peaks. I ended up having to race a storm that was rolling in from the west, but I ended up having enough time to get some great photos and eat my lunch before the rain caught up. That little race wasn't just the beginning of my experience with that storm.

The storm turned out to be a blizzard that hit Denver pretty hard, and as I went over my last pass towards south-west Colorado, it gave me a run for my money too. It took about 20 minutes for the strength of the storm to hit, and visibility went down to around 20 feet. The passing traffic came to a crawl as cars up ahead started crashing into each other. At one point the visibility got down to about 5 feet with snow coming down thick. After coming over the pass, I had to make it back down... I'll just describe the experience as intense.

Now that was on the west side of the Rockies, a first for me to drive, the weather lifted, and a beautiful sunrise was in store. I made my way into Mesa Verde later than I planned. Though I don't regret my stop at the Dunes, that plus the blizzard put me in the park after hours. Though the park was still open, they don't close the gates, the central area with the ruins are locked off to prevent vandalism. Though I did at least get a decent sneak view, I would love to come back. With the little light I had left in the day, I explored as much of the mesa as I could before turning into to my Airbnb. My first day of adventure was a success. All my gear was charging, I had a fantastic first day, and I was excited to see Monument Valley the next day.

Photography Date: 4-28-17
Writing Date: 3-19-18

High up in the middle of the Rocky Mountains is quite the anomaly, sand dunes. Dunes in the mountains, I knew I had to see them for myself, so my buddy and I planned a camping trip. We set out for three days and two nights into the unknown. All we knew is that we wanted to see the dunes, take pictures, and camp. Up an old winding dirt and gravel road that was rough enough to bounce mufflers and fillings out, was our campsite at Zapata Falls.

Being late July, it was hot. So after setting up camp, we decided to check out the falls and cool off in the mist. The game plan was to run into the small nearby town for a few missed supplies and watch the sunset from camp as we were a good way up the east side of the valley. It didn't take long for us to start hating the road up to our camp. Sunset came right as we got our campfire going. It had to be one of my top favorite sunsets.

That evening a storm rolled in on the eastern side of the mountain. With the storm came thunder and lighting. Luckily it made for great pictures and not bad weather. The next morning was overcast but dry from the storm. This was quite the relief, but it didn't stick around for long. We explored a bit on our way to the dunes finding an abandoned house that had the most ominous crows I've seen.

We tried to do some "off the road" exploring on some sandy roads, but nearly getting stuck in deep soft sand changed our minds about that pretty quick. The central dune area was very crowded and hot, so we decided to explore the creek. It didn't take long for it to dry out and go underground, but every corner promised a discovery. We ended up chasing some deer saw and were following their tracks, but ended up not seeing them again. At our stopping point, we dug into the dry creek bed and found flowing water not too deep. After a quick drink, we headed back.

To be honest, we were both feeling a bit bummed from the day's adventures. It wasn't what we were hoping for, and I think we were burnt out from bringing in the sun all day. We made our way back to camp feeling a little defeated. I think all we needed was to let go of our expectations, get some rest, grab a bite and some water; we felt much better. I think we were placing high expectations on ourselves on what photos we wanted to come away with. So we did our best to let go and head back to the dunes, but to a different unpopulated area for the golden hour. Holy cow was that the ticket. As soon as we let go, that's when we found what we were looking for.

The next morning we took it easy. We slept in, made coffee and breakfast burritos and just relaxed on our last morning at camp. After cleaning up and thoroughly putting out our campfire, we hit the road for our way back home. We stopped at a few places that caught our attention on the way over. One of these places was an Alien UFO lookout tower. Pretty cool.

Photography Date: 7-31-16
Writing Date: 2-26-18

Monument Valley | Day 1

Camping at Great Sand Dunes NP

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