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The Great Plains | Day 2 Theodore Roosevelt NP

May 27, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Retrospective, Adventure

For whatever reason, I had the bright idea to pick a central location for my trip into the Great Plains to stay, Lead South Dakota. Staying here was a good idea for a few National Parks I was planning on seeing, but it meant I had a long day to get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I didn't mind too much in the morning as I was excited to see some of the Great Plains and the drive is an equally exciting part of the journey as the destination.

I took my time taking as many side roads as I could afford to take. It still being late in the Spring, all the plant life was still so green and vibrant; it was as if I was in the old Windows XP background. Also, one of the most exciting thing for me around this trip was to find some Bison, so every corner and hill hide the potential excitement of seeing them. I knew that TRNP had Bison, but finding them early in the trip would be awesome.

I got to the park in the early afternoon and started to make a game plan. I would see what I could of the south unit, then drive around and hike into the South Unit's Petrified Forest, after that I would head up and see what the North Unit had to offer. Unfortunately, I would not have enough time to visit the Elkhorn Ranch Unit.

After a busy afternoon of making all the stops and even a few hikes in the south unit, I finally came across a lone Bison. To say I was excited was an understatement if I only knew what was ahead of me. He was slowly meandering around in a field munching on some food. The light wasn't that great, but I was able to zoom in and get a pretty cool high contrast black and white. He eventually made his way further into the field where I no longer felt safe pursuing him, so I peeled off, finished exploring the South Unit, and made my way to the Petrified Forest.

As I neared the trailhead to the Petrified Forest, the wind picked up quite a bit, and a pretty gnarly storm was on the horizon. I decided to take the gamble and head in anyways. It was about a mile or so hike to the Forest, and no one was around. I love going to these places and having them all to myself; it's magical. I held out as long as I could, but the storm was starting to pick up and move in fast. The clouds did add quite a bit of drama to the petrified forest. As I was hiking out, more like running through the rain, I came over a hilltop field I had to cross. Can you guess what was now there that wasn't before? Buffalo! But this time I was feeling entirely different about them since I was on foot in the middle of a storm and they were in between me and where I needed to be. I did my best to stay calm and went out of my way to give them space.

I was now off the North unit and feeling great. I was having a blast seeing all these wondrous things feeling quite content. With about two hours in between the Petrified Forest and the North Unit, the storm was gone, and the light was terrific. I hardly saw another car driving the entire time I was in the North Unit, there were a few campers, but Park was pretty much mine. I made my way through, again stopping everywhere trying to see all that I could when the most amazing thing happened. I drove up a hill around a corner and right there in front of me was about 30-50 Bison in a golden field with the sun setting behind them. I nearly fell over.

I have no idea how long I was there with them, half the time I was merely watching trying to remember to take photos. It was absolutely magical. It was just them and me, no one was around, and they were close. I stayed safe in my truck and did my best not to disturb them. I waited as late and as long as I could, but I was at least five hours away from my pillow that night.

But, the day still had one more amazing treat in store. After failing to find a spot on the drive back to shoot the sunset, I was pretty much just focused on getting home for the evening. It must have been close to midnight when I started to notice some funny looking clouds in the sky. At first, I did assume just that, clouds, but as I kept driving their perspective and relationship to the horizon was not staying consistent. It took me a few more minutes to realize that it wasn't clouded at all, but the Northern Lights! Holy crap, I didn't even know you could see them from the lower 48. I pulled over as soon as I could and fired off as many pictures as I could, but the moment was fleeting and not meant to last. Today was one of the best days of exploring I ever had.

Photography Date: 5-27-17
Writing Date: 7-25-18

Monarch Lake and the West Side RMNP

May 21, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Retrospective

With the gate over the pass still closed, my buddy Jessy and I wanted to get to the west side of Rocky Mountain NP, so we drove the long way around. We thought that since we were already going to be in the area, we should hike in and check out Monarch Lake as well.

After a few wrong turns from Denver, we finally made our way to Lake Granby. There was still fresh snow on the mountains, and the contrast between the lake was beautiful. We took our time getting around the lake stopping many times trying to see everything we could until we got around to the trailhead to Monarch Lake. I guess I should use that word lightly; it was a seasonal road.

Monarch Lake was quite spectacular, though the weather didn't fully cooperate with us, it was still a beautiful little lake. We hiked around to one side to an outcropping of rocks where we enjoyed a snack while snapping a few picks. I would have loved having a canoe or Kayak.

After grabbing lunch in Grand Lake, we headed off into the west side RMNP. By this time, that bad weather I was mentioning early had decided to pick up, but that was ok, there was new ground to cover. To our luck, it was closer than we thought. Just around the corner as we entered the park were two moose grabbing a bite to eat just off the road. We, of course, had to stop and do our best to safely get as close as we could for a good picture, luckily we both brought our zoom lenses! This was a super exciting moment for the both of us as we'd never seen a moose before.

Photography Date: 5-21-17
Writing Date: 7-23-18

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Exploring Moab Day 4 : Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP

May 15, 2017 in Adventure, National Park, Photography, Retrospective

While relaxing during our late last morning, I was looking at the map trying to find a more scenic drive back to Denver that didn't have us backtracking the same roads. To my delight, I learned that Colorado had a fourth National Park I didn't know about and how it could be "on our way." At this point, I still did not know much about the National Parks other than I wanted to see them. The Park was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and it was only a few hours out of the way. We made a plan to see it, packed up and were on our way.

The drive up to the Park concealed the grand nature of the canyon quite well; you have a hard time believing there is a 2,000 foot deep canyon in front of you until you nearly fall over the edge. It was incredible, roughly half a mile deep. We drove through a little more rushed than we would have preferred, but since we had the Park nearly to our selves, it was quite easy to see all the main vistas and even completed a short hike. I would love to go back and make the trek down to the bottom of the canyon and camp for a few days.

We continued to drive as many back roads as we could taking a few breaks here and there to stretch our legs, but eventually, we made ended up on the main highway home. There was one stop I wanted to prioritize to make a stop. There is a rest stop memorial overlooking a grand valley that has a viewpoint of a small washout below that has been filled with old debris or a what looks like a house collapsed. I never figured out what it was, but after hiking down to it, what it seemed to resemble most was a long-abandoned dumping site of some sort. Quite mysterious.

Photography Date: 5-15-17
Writing Date: 3-24-18

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Exploring Moab Day 3 : Arches NP

May 14, 2017 in Adventure, National Park, Photography, Hike, Retrospective

We started off the day as early as we could muster considering we had a two-hour drive into Arches ahead of us. The day was overcast, which was needed relief from the sun on our faces from the day before, but I was a little worried about the conditions for photography. We made our way into the park and quickly found ourselves stuck behind a large tour bus and many cyclists. Rather than fighting the crowds and getting frustrated, we slowed ourselves way down letting them all get ahead of us.

As the clouds let go of the sky and the sun poked through, we made our way deeper into the park to our first real experience with these beautiful arches. This place was crazy busy, I tried to use the restroom but got yelled at because I missed the hour-long line and everyone thought I was trying to cut. Like all the parks, if you work hard enough, you can always find a place to have a moment alone. We found our spot around the backside.

When on trips such as this, I always try to fit in a hike to stretch the legs from all the driving. We decided to hike into Delicate Arch rather than seeing it from a mile away at the viewpoint. It was around now that we wished the sky was still shrouded in clouds, it was hot. The heat made the hike feel twice as long with hot air. To our great relief, the wind picked up quite a bit cooling us off once we got to the arch. Again I ran around taking pictures while Brittany soaked up all she could in a quiet moment.

After checking out the petroglyphs on the way back, we headed out towards our last destination while blasting the AC. We got out of the truck and started walking towards Sand Dune Arch, and my legs felt like jelly, but once we saw what we were getting into, a new excitement came over us. We were in a thin narrow slot canyon that eroded through these massive sandstone rocks above ground. The air was very cool inside and beautiful.

On the way back to Palisade, we decided to take the slower road along the Colorado home. The drive was stunning as we weaved back and forth between giant rock walls and the slowly meandering river. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs as Brittany dipped her feet in the river and at one stop we stumbled upon more petroglyphs just mere feet off the road.

Photography Date: 5-14-17
Writing Date: 5-24-18

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Exploring Moab Day 2 : Canyonlands NP

May 13, 2017 in National Park, Photography, Adventure, Retrospective

Not sure what the day had in store for us, we headed west towards the Moab area. I wasn't confident what to do or where to go, but I knew there were a few national parks so we couldn't go wrong. We stopped at a few vista points along the way and eventually made our way around mid-morning. For whatever reason, we decided that seeing Canyonlands would be the best way to spend our first day.

Our first experience with Canyonlands was an hour wait to get into the park. I'm not sure why there was such a delay, because once we got inside the park, it wasn't too busy. The first thing we did was heading straight to the visitors center to get some sunscreen; we didn't plan for the beautiful weather in store for us. As we made our way, we stopped at the many viewpoints soaking up the grandeur before us.

Our first hike of the day would be to Mesa Arch. It was a short hike, but the sun made it feel much longer than it was. Once there, we were pleased by how few people were around and how easy it was to get the shots we wanted without too many "tourist." There was a guy shouting "GoPro, take a photo" a little more than I preferred, but it was ok. I tried not to make Brittany too nervous by getting close to the edge where all the good photos hide.

Next, we made our way to the end of the Grand View Point Road, and we were not disappointed. Brittany took a short break to soak in the surroundings while I scurried around taking pictures. This area was a bit busier, but with not too much effort we were able to get to a place for some alone time.

After swinging by and hiking to Upheaval dome, we started to make our way back, but we had one more adventure in store for the day. Instead of taking the main road to Moab for dinner, we decided to make the 2,000 foot decent via the old dirt road down the canyon wall known as the Schafer Trail. The trail was super exciting and full of fantastic views, but not for the faint of heart. There were many sections where hitting the gas instead of the breaks could get you a oneway ticket to the bottom. Once we were off the cliff side, the trail was much more enjoyable.

Photography Date: 5-13-17
Writing Date: 5-24-18