Monthly Archives: November 2014

A Trip to Rocky Mountain National Park

My first photographic trip to Rocky Mountain National Park was for only one day and so I chose to focus my efforts on Bear Lake as it was the only road open for its entire length. There were two areas I wanted to explore, Bear Lake and Alberta Falls, and I made my first foray to Bear Lake for sundown. The Lake was completely frozen so reflections were out of the question and if it wasn’t  the wind on that day would have made it impossible to get a good reflection. The Light was not very exciting since Bear Lake sits in a valley below the surrounding peaks and there were no clouds in the sky.

I returned the following morning for sunrise and did manage to get one good shot of the sun hitting Hallet Peak (below). I then ventured on the 2 mile hike to Alberta Falls only to find it totally frozen solid. Disappointed with this effort I chose to take Trail Ridge Road for as far as it was open and did get several good photos of the spectacular mountain range visible from the road.

 

 

Shiprock, The Navajo Nation “Winged Rock”

My latest adventure had me going to the New Mexico town of Shiprock, named after an isolated small mountain which rises abruptly on a virtually level plain. This mountain is sacred to the Navajo Nation and is part of their religion and mythology and referred to as the “Winged Rock” (English). I travelled from Santa Fe to Shiprock, starting out at 3:00 AM to arrive at sunrise. Being unfamiliar with the route I was a little late but spent two hours walking around and Photographing this majestic peak. While I did manage to get some decent images, I believe I will be making several more trips to get more striking images. the image below gives you a good view of this sacred rock.