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I wonder about my color blindness. I've heard (and of course it's just wishful thinking) that us red-green color blind folks actually see color more "correctly" than normal color-visioned folks. For whatever reason, I couldn't seem get enough of whatever the heck was happening this September on the Western slope of Colorado.
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Coke Ovens near Thomasville
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Reds, yellows, greens, purples . . . a riot of color was bleeding from Mother Nature's technicolor palette. Tourists were careening off of roads, their mouths agape at a polychromatic chaos. He might want to throw a wrap on it, but not even John Ashcroft would be able to keep Mother Nature's glory contained this season.
I've not experienced fall color like this. Maybe the new Sonic Youth discs I'd brought were contributing to my changing perception, but I also had other help: I'd just acquired John Fielder's book about the Best of Colorado. Rather than guess where Ma Nature was having her party, I was armed with a fellow photographer's inside information. And I've got to say this book was invaluable. I discovered places I wouldn't have thought to go (and I think I only saw about 10 of the 165 places mentioned in the book).
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The Crystal Mill
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The trip started over Hagerman pass, above Turquoise Lake in Leadville. I've lived in Leadville more than once, but never went over this pass, probably because it's mostly a 4WD road. Colorado had just had a chilly storm, and near the summit (11,925' at the Continental Divide), I was not surprised to find myself driving through a small foot-high snow drift . . . winter was well on it's way to the high country. The Hagerman road winds down into Ruedi Reservoir, and ultimately ends in Basalt. My goal was to wander into Kebler pass (9,980') for the second time in as many weeks.
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West Beckwith Mountain
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On the Kebler pass road I began seeing my first photographers of the trip. Some folks were out with their medium and large format cameras at dawn, and were pointing them at West Beckwith Mountain. I'm not happy at all with my shot of West Beckwith (left), but perhaps this was I was too shy then to join the ranks in the prime location they had chosen. I just had a D60 . . . their cameras were bigger (true, it's what you do with it).
It's worth mentioning that the color this last week of September here on Kebler was perhaps about half-turned. During the first visit to Kebler pass - about September 17 - only about 25% of the trees had turned. But at the same time, trees along Colorado's front range already seemed to be at their peak. It was on this earlier trip that I visited the town of Marble to photograph the Crystal Mill (above right), but I've already written about that failure.
I dropped down into Crested Butte and wormed my way into the popular Paradise Cafe for a spectacular Huevos Rancheros before checking out Ohio Creek (number 89 in Fielder's book).
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Castle Peaks in Shadow
at Ohio Creek
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But now I was getting nervous, photographically speaking. These were gorgeous days of bright sun, and I wasn't planning my dawn/dusk locations well: Everything I was shooting so far pretty-much sucked. This was depressing: If you can't get a good shot in what is arguably one of the prettiest locations on the planet this time of year, throwing more money at your little hobby isn't going to help.
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Black Mesa
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Fortunately - although I didn't know it - I was off to some stunning country. I saw from John's book that I was close to Black Mesa, an area that - from his photo - looked intriguing to me. Sagebrush, aspen, cottonwood, and oak each contributed their unique color to the landscape.
I spent some time trying to find where Fielder took his Black Mesa shot (perhaps this is a good way to learn). However, unlike many of the other photos in his book, I couldn't figure out where he stood. While it shouldn't be tough, other areas of the landscape soon beckoned. I took "720 RD" up Curecanti Creek, and came across what you might call the classic Black Mesa landscape - Hoodoos grouped together as the backdrop for the parade of color below.
After a chilly 27°F morning along Curecanti Creek, I discovered that I had a friend who also thought the morning was cold. A mouse had not only tried my array of food inside the Jeep that night, but made his bed among some napkins he had shredded in the glove compartment. Even the discordant din of continuous Sonic Youth and bouncy 4WD roads didn't deter him . . . and so we shared the Jeep for the next 48 hours.
While coming down Curecanti Creek, I spied this grove of aspens with orange-looking color, and decided to walk 100' uphill to check them out. I absolutely loved this look, and despite the freezing temperatures struggled to figure out how to best capture this orange sherbet leaf color against the almost phosphorescent white and blue-glow of the aspen boles. Really challenging, and while I came away with this shot (which I adore), I think there was the potential to really pull something off.
Back at a Ridgeway gas station, I helped a bewildered-looking Japanese woman with directions to Ouray. "Please, can . . . help . . . my ho-tel?!" I point her to the direction she needed to go, and she gestured about how she could get through the intersection to go that way. I told her that she could just cut across the pair of double-yellow lines when no one was looking. I asked her if she was from Japan. She smiled that she understood the question, and said, "Yes". Then I opened my arms wide and loudly exclaimed in my best Bill Murray-type impression: "Welcome to America!".
The next stop was Dallas Divide and Last Dollar Road, just outside of Ridgeway. Both were Fielder locations. I knew about the pullout at Dallas Divide, but I'd never done Last Dollar Road. This seemed to be mostly private land, and the closer you got to Telluride, the more stunning the homes became. Once again, I couldn't see exactly where John had taken his shot. I ran into some nice people from Earth Tones Nature Photography that said, "I think it's back there."
Another night at a USDA/Forest Service campground with services outsourced to private industry, and then over Ophir pass. Don't miss the turn from highway 145 though; the townspeople are said to repeatedly take down the sign that the highway department puts up. Or, maybe you should avoid Ophir altogether: Ophir pass - while not too challenging for a 4WD vehicle - can be daunting to those people who don't like mile-long one-lane shelf roads with thousand foot drop-offs (I'd have my own photo, but I wasn't in the mood to get out of the car).
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The Beaver Pond on Lime Creek Road
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Ophir pass puts you close to the town of Silverton. I shot Molas Lake under poor conditions, and went over Molas Pass to Lime Creek Road, another Fielder suggestion. Traveling this route from north to south eventually brings you to the huge beaver dam John mentions. Again, my shots of this weren't inspiring, but the potential is definitely there under dawn or dusk conditions. Camping would certainly be available there. I continued shooting on the return route over Red Mountain pass on my return to the Ouray area. Stunning fall scenery.
The next morning I returned to Denver, taking off over Owl Creek Pass just outside the town of Ridgeway. Along this Owl Creek road I must have switched between the wide-angle (17-40mm) and telephoto (100-400mm) a half-dozen times. Just stunning scenery with prime afternoon light. I made it to Denver in good time, despite stopping every five minutes somewhere along this road. And I'm sure to do this again next year - checking out new locations and keeping life exciting for the occasional wayward tourist.
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