Above image I quite like – but didn’t write a piece about it below. It was from the same morning as this first image just later in the day as I hiked towards the fissures.

The finale of my time in Yosemite was grand. On October 1st, while waiting to see what would happen with the Government Shutdown, I rested.

On the second I hit the trail early towards one of the domes with a great view in the park – and the gray clouds had me sure that we wouldn’t get any light. I was delightfully mistaken.

The light was grand and unique – one I’m sure that not many people have seen in Yosemite. Getting to witness it was truly a gift from the heavens.

On another evening I did a quiet walk through the valley floor exploring and just enjoying moving.

On the final evening in the park I went to Valley View – and waited as the sun set. It was divine and the babbling Merced River was a nice bit of background noise to work alongside. My time in Yosemite was over, but it would never be forgotten.

As I was leaving the park – I stopped several times to take some images. It was a nice and quiet morning – it was a Saturday and far more people were coming into the park than were leaving.

I had such a long drive ahead of me that I couldn’t sleep so I was up at a nauseating time and driving through the park in more or less complete stillness.

Eventually I got to a canyon where I decided I’d watch the sunrise. The views there were nice but I was more just enjoying the process than the photography itself. My favorite picture that morning was the shot above – the patterns in the freshly frozen ice were wonderfully dramatic – and the way it framed a sole frosty and frozen leaf in the middle works well. I wish if there were anything different that it was more monotone – just the blue and orange and leaving the green grass behind.

After that I kept driving and as I was leaving the park there was a pull off near a lake where I photographed the above left image of the plant and mountain-top behind. The Sierras (once again) did not disappoint.

Fall in Colorado! It’s a sight to be seen for sure. I could not sleep in my Hotel in Utah so when I finally woke up around 4 AM (maybe 3?) I just decided I may as well hit the road and began my drive to Ouray.

When I arrived I had hours to kill before I could check-in and take a nap (at 1400) so I did what any photographer would do. I hit the road! I drove up towards where I’d be photographing that evening to get a rough sense of the driving conditions as well as of the foliage levels and where they were at in different parts of the location I’d be photographing.

That evening was stunning and the mountains looked great in yellow but for my money the image which took the cake was this shot of the town. It’s just so simple and the colors are a delight to look at. I couldn’t be happier with this version of the image.

The following morning was spent lakeside watching the sunrise and early dawn’s light illuminate these mountain peaks. It was tough photographically that morning even though it was gorgeous, the ice beginning to set in on the lake was challenging to work into the scene. I think this image worked well enough by using it as a natural frame adding some interest to the reflection.

Eventually I made it to Aspen where I got these final two images. While I like the bottom image and it’s what I really had hoped to photograph in this part of my trip (I wanted to see these damn mountains with Aspens) – I love the top one.

It’s just such a unique take on the “Aspen” photograph that people typically get of them, I feel there’s thousands of shots of aspen groves (a cliche I’ve photographed with myself) however this shot works wonders. I adore the varied colors and patchwork vibrance that the autumnal leaves and foliage in the scene offers as a stark compliment to the pristine white tones of the bark.

Furthermore the added perspective looking down onto the trees (from being elevated above them on the path I was walking on that evening adds even more uniqueness to the scene. All in all, an image I’m quite happy with.

This image is tough. On the one hand – it’s objectively a beautiful scene. HOWEVER I’ve never seen this lake high enough to get the reflection the “view” is known for – and furthermore I was in Aspen about 2 weeks too late for peak foliage in this part of the state so the foliage was more patchwork than I’d have liked.

This is a tough photograph because I actually quite like even though it’s a photograph through a window. We were driving towards Breckenridge and it was snowing and we had to take a detour over Loveland Pass. It was a beautiful place and one I decided I’d be visiting later on in the month (see weekend four below).

Eventually, we made it over the pass and to Breckenridge where we met up with our friends.

Once we arrived it was clear that it would be a “casual day” due to the weather. But it was great! We got some wonderful food (I tried crepes for the first time) and coffee to start the day.

After that we walked and did some window shopping at the many outdoors stores in the area.

The day was primarily spent visiting and chatting with friends, and as such the photography took somewhat of a back-burner. I did manage to get two images I quite liked – one which was more of a snapshot (this dog one) and the other which I thought was quite nice, the leaf shot above. The light rain that morning was forming perfect big rain drops on the fallen aspen leaves.

This was an absolutely spectacular day. I summited my first 13er – photographed some spectacular alpenglow – and saw snow on the mountaintops. It was delightful.

I hit the trail at 0630. The stars were beautiful facing towards the South and as I steadily climbed the light began illuminating the peaks more and more. The Belt of Venus made an appearance as you can see in the image above. I love the simplicity of it – and the stark cool tones of the image. A gentle hint of pink – a lovely cloud anchoring the top of the frame and a stark and bare tundra below.

As the climb continued, I was painfully reminded how long it had been since I’d done a good hike at a altitude. The hike was fairly strenuous – it was ~2 miles to the summit with ~1400′ Elevation Gain. The hike didn’t really have any flat sections. I was either going up or down the entire hike. But the views offered the entire hike’s duration were worth every step. I set a timer so I’d know when sunrise was five minutes away and waited for the alpenglow. When it came – it hit like a Mack Truck.

After illuminating this range, I turned around and it had begun illuminating this range towards the south of the pass. the clouds were the thing I loved the most from this hike. They provided gorgeous interest in the scenes. I’d love to explore the area again when the Northern range above is as snowy as the Southern range below.

As time went on – the clouds rolling off the peaks to the north formed a large mass – and there was a lone drifting cloud hanging around above offering a good counter-weight to the rest of the scene.

Eventually I was high enough to have a clear view at many of the different ski-resorts in this area. I have a fairly good idea of which is which. The one I’m most unsure on is Keystone. That one might be an extended part of A-Basin, but I have a feeling the right-hand side chute is the edge of A-Basin’s boundary and that the second closest set of trails is Keystone.

From there – I did summit Sniktau! It was good but truth be told after the morning light began to really flood the valleys I was on either side of – the photography began to fall off, but that’s okay. I was out there to exercise and see something beautiful and that it was!