Today I returned to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This trip took me down into the canyon and then along the south rim.

Only one road goes down into the canyon. East Portal Road took me to the east side, where although the canyon is wider, it is still beautiful.

Gunnison River in Black Canyon

Aside from this road, the only way down is a steep and dangerous hike that all my sources say is not something mortals should consider. I did hike from the East Portal road to the tiny sandbar in this photo, where the rudimentary trail stops completely. [Read more →]

My new lens is wonderful, but not enough. I realized today that I need a another prime lens to handle closer distances. Doug Goodin, a professional nature photographer who is a friend and mentor, recommends a 50mm lens. Maybe when I get this one I will be satisfied!

I’ve bought two photos of Colorado scenes and both of them grace my living room. Doug took one of them, and another professional nature photographer in Boulder, Peter Steele, took the other one. He calls it “Horse Crossing” and a low resolution version of it is online. Peter told me that he found this scene near the town of Marble, and since the road I was taking today went close to Marble I drove there to see if I could find the setting.

Here is a copy of the online version of Peter’s photo. The print that I have is a lot sharper:

"Horse Crossing" by Peter Steele

While Peter was there in spring and I got there in the fall, this is same place:

More Horses

I was headed toward the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, the only national park in Colorado that I hadn’t experienced before. The National Parks attract me. We have 58 of them in this country now, and I have experienced just over half of them. [Read more →]

Sometimes even the best lens isn’t good enough. I needed both my 18-200mm zoom and my 300mm telephoto lens to capture spectacular Mt. Sopris on Friday.

Not until after 1 p.m. did I get away on my unplanned road trip to southwestern Colorado. First, Nancy, my friend and neighbor, and I went out for breakfast and then took a hike together. Then, I needed to pack.

Even though I got a late start I didn’t feel rushed — not until I got to Glenwood Springs, near the end of the high rent district. All the way west on Interstate 70 I passed one upscale ski resort after another, including the most famous, Vail. I took a good look around Vail, which again struck me like a chic wide spot in the road. Colorado’s other top end ski resort, Aspen, which I visited with my friend Mark a few months ago, still attracts me much more.

The pricy resorts stop at Carbondale, just south of Glenwood Springs and west of Aspen. On Friday when I got to Glenwood Springs about 6 p.m. I realized that I needed to step on it in order to catch the last light on foot Mt. Sopris. This 13,000 foot mountain towers 7,000 feet over the Crystal River Resort about six miles south of Carbondale, where I had a reservation to spend the night in a charming cabin. It lacked wifi, but places — like lenses — can’t have everything.

My timing to capture Mt. Sopris was perfect. I got to the resort about 6:30, took my first shot at 6:38 and my last one at 7:01 just after the light faded. I used my best tripod with each lens to get the sharpest photos I could.

When I bought my new 300mm telephoto lens I knew that its fixed focal length lacked the flexibility of my zoom lens. So I needed this shot with my zoom lens turned to a 35mm focal length to set the scene:

Mt. Sopris and the Crystal River at the Crystal River Resort

Six minutes earlier I got this close up of the mountain with my brand new 300mm lens. What a difference! [Read more →]

Photographs can never be too sharp. Many of mine haven’t been sharp enough to please me.

For months I’ve been thinking about upgrading my camera equipment, and I finally did it. This afternoon my new lens arrived.

As soon as UPS delivered it, I hit the trail. I couldn’t wait to get out and put my new lens through its paces, even though I got caught in a rain storm. No matter. My new lens worked fine.

Just half a mile from my apartment is a prairie dog colony. Since it was wet and after 6, most of the prairie dogs had already gone to bed. But this one posed nicely for me:

Neighborhood Prairie Dog

My new lens is superior in three ways to my three other lenses. First, it is a Canon “L-series” lens, which is the company’s designation for the best ones that it makes. Unofficially, the “L” stands for luxury, and I guess that it is. [Read more →]

With a prediction of sunny skies everywhere here in north central Colorado, plus a temperature forecast of 80 degrees in Boulder and 60 degrees at the top of the Rocky Mountain National Park, today was a great day to get back to the high country. The weatherman was almost right.

Except for a snowstorm during the last hour of my hike along the Old Ute Trail from the Alpine Visitor Center at the top of Trail Ridge Road to Milner Pass on the Continental Divide, the weather was perfect. And the first person I asked for a ride back to the visitor center took me right there.

This four-mile hike is one of favorites. You can see why:

Old Ute Trail Before the Snow (The Dark Cloud Was A Clue)

A Butterfly on One of the Last Flowers of Summer

That was my first hike today.

But last night I showed about a dozen of the best shots that I took this summer to the other members of the Colorado Nature Camera Club. This was a trial run to see how they would look on the club’s projector. I was most concerned whether they would be sharp and bright enough. They were. [Read more →]

Since returning from Alaska a week ago, I’ve been hiking every day. But until today I didn’t get any photographs I liked.

This morning I made a four-mile hike along South Boulder Creek. It’s a trail that I’ve hiked many times before. But today was the first time that the old barn in these pictures caught my attention.

My Apartment is Right Between the Barn and the Mountains

Close Up of the Barn

Even in late summer we can find beauty, when we look for it.

The most famous native art of Alaska — which also has always interested me the most — is the carving of totem poles. Before I left Alaska yesterday I was able to see four wonderful totem poles.

One of the most interesting totem poles is in the sanctuary of my best friend’s church. John is the senior pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Anchorage. On my visit to Alaska I had the opportunity to see him leading worship services for the first time.

Pastor John and His Congregation This Sunday

On of the most interesting totem poles is at the right side of this photo. Carved from a 500-year-old cedar log by David Fison, one of John’s predecessors, this 17-foot “Easter Totem Pole” honors the people of the Tsimshian village of Metlakatla where he had served as interim pastor in 1965. [Read more →]

The longer I stay in Alaska the better the weather gets. This can’t last for long, but since last Wednesday all over Alaska, at least from Anchorage to Nome, we have had sunny weather.

We returned yesterday for a cruise around Prince William Sound. We had glorious sunshine, infinitely better than the heavy rain and blustery weather that forced the cancellation of our previous attempt several days ago.

We left from from the little town of Whittier, 60 miles southeast of Anchorage.

90 Percent of the Residents of Whittier Live in the Big Building

The Princess Diamond Was in Port

[Read more →]

Unlike other commercial hubs in rural Alaska, Nome is a “wet” city, with bars and liquor stores. Nome has many of them for the three-fourths of the Alaska Native population that has an alcohol problem, which greatly concerns Pastors David and Julie. At this bar, the sign below the word “Saloon” says, “Headquarters for the Sin City of Nome.”

One of Nome's Many Bars

Pastor Julie’s and David’s Methodist Church is Nome’s oldest Protestant Church, established 1900.

Nome's Methodist Church

[Read more →]

“A taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper.”

- Henry David Thoreau

Today on my third day in Nome I explored the third and last road leading out of the town. The Kougarok Road took me 85 miles one-way into the interior. The road ends at the Kougarok River Bridge.

If a town of Kougarok ever existed, it has no buildings now. In fact, the only houses along the entire road are warming huts. No one lives anywhere along the Kougarok Road.

But I saw lots of beautiful tundra and clear lakes and streams as well as these mountains.

The Valley of the Pilgrim River

Pilgrim River and Mount Osborn

Sailboat on Salmon Lake

Now I’m back in Nome for a few hours before flying tonight to Anchorage. “Visiting the Nome area is a trip of a lifetime,” John says. It sure is.