I spent the month of June mostly local. It was a month between travel – May had been busy and July and August would be even more so. I wanted to enjoy Colorado!
So I did.
A Solid Start
After finishing the month of May with a bang (the last image in my May 2025 article), I kept the pace up by going on a closer to-home hike on Sunday morning. I was actually revisiting the location I’d been to at the start of May, but this time with an idea on where I’d like to be for sunrise.
I got there well in advance and scoped out possible compositions – and while the images are okay from the morning, truth be told I don’t think any of them are “stunning” (this is a trend that would continue later on into the month – but I’m getting ahead of myself).
I think these images are decent – but the light and clear skies were (in the end) a recipe for a somewhat flat scene. The light came as fast as it went and we were thrust into a sunny day – no slow burn of light for me.
Fern
Now this was where things would get interesting! I ended up taking a colleagues recommendation and made it to the trailhead in RMNP around 445 in the morning. I had about 45 minutes to sunrise. I began hiking and for the longest stretch didn’t see much wildlife. Sunrise came and it went and I was still a ways off from the lake itself.
I rounded a corner – and then the elk came into play.
It was just him and I in the woods – and the trail was quiet for a long time. I watched and photographed him as he went about his routine for sometime before finally deciding it was time to keep moving.
This was where I was referencing “this will come back up later” as to me I don’t think these images of the elk work all that well – but so it goes sometimes I suppose. It was a wonderful moment – and the videos I captured of him are spectacular. I just need to do practice more and more with wildlife photography.
Friday Night Light
On Friday June 20th Sophie and I decided to try something new, we were going to head up Trail Ridge road for sunset with dinner! On the way into Estes, we saw this cliff-face and I had to get a picture. Luckily, there was a place to pull-off right at the base, and I hopped out and snapped a few pictures. From there, we continued the road into Estes and our night really began.
We picked up food in Estes Park (recommend checking out Estes Thai if ever in the area) and then drove up to one of the many overlooks along Trail Ridge road. Along the way stopping at Rainbow Curve which is where we got the below image.
Seeing the flowing water and lush greenery accentuating the landscape was a pleasant change from the months of brown and white we’d seen all winter long. It’s an image that has grown on me the more that I’ve looked at it. Eventually we made it up to the look out where we’d have dinner and enjoy the sunset.
After eating, we hopped out and walked to the canyon overlook – along the way I snapped this image of the light cascading over the scene.
Afterwards, I was ready to keep moving – so we began heading deeper into the park to explore some more of the look outs, along the way I got these two final scenes of the light. After that it was a quiet drive home, we saw a few elk on the side of the road, but didn’t get a chance to photograph them.
Fern II: The Moose Day
Part of the reason we’d gone to Estes was that we planned on hiking Fern Lake Saturday morning and I didn’t feel like ripping another several hour early morning drive. So we got a hotel in town and hit the trail early on Saturday.
The hike was good – and we saw a great abundance of wildlife, of particular note were the 5 moose we saw! 1 female and 4 male. I have a video on YouTube from Sophie’s phone which shows the scene we were graced with. It was alarming having them appear so suddenly behind us but we kept our cool and they kept on moving.
As we were leaving I noticed some interesting patterning on some of the burnt out trees on the trail. I took a few pictures, but the one to the right was my favorite.
I want to write about also how important it is to sometimes remain in the moment (can you smell the copium).
I was so saddened by the fact that I didn’t have my camera on me for that encounter – however not having it on me made me really focus on the scene as it was unfolding around me.
I remember the snap of the twigs and the slight motion checking over my shoulder before being greeted with three male moose.
I remember putting my finger in the bear-spray as a means of “preparing for self defense” in the event something went violent.
I remember watching them walk through the water and shake and move along the lakes edge to put more distance between us and them.
They were so alarmed when we moved, it was funny witnessing these beasts get frightened.