53-Walking on the Thompson

After quite a bit of time not shooting, I had to make sure the camera still worked, and that I knew how to use it. When my friend Gregg mentioned that he wanted to take a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park, to shoot landscape and the elk herds, I thought it’d be fun to go. Especially since it was supposed to be cold and snowy at home.

We headed up towards Estes Park, and saw some breaks in the clouds, which made us hopeful for good lighting. As we drove in, the weather got progressively worse. We stopped at the Fern Lake Trailhead, put on the Sorrel’s and started walking towards Fern Lake, shooting whatever we found. Lots of opportunity, and a LOT of white light out there. After the snow melts next spring, somebody is going to find a nice pair of gunmetal grey Bolle’s sitting on the ground between Cub Lake and the Fern Lake Trailhead. I searched and searched, but couldn’t find them. And I knew within about 30 meters of where I lost them. Bummer….

After a couple hours shooting along the creek, we headed up towards Bear Lake, and the snow got MUCH worse. Not much to shoot there. Far too much snow to get anything useful.

418-Elk in Horseshoe Meadow

Leaving there, we decided to head for Horseshoe meadows, since the elk tend to congregate there. But on the way, got distracted in by the heavy snow and some of the trees in the mist/fog/snow. I’ve brightened this up a little since it was so gray outside, but I like the look of the tree with the ridge-line obscured in the background. We must have spend an hour walking around in the heavy snow, with people driving by looking at us like we were strange. It’s funny how two guys shooting trees, bushes, pine-cones and landscapes in a snowstorm causes mutiple cars to stop and try to find the elk we’re taking pictures of. It was pretty funny.

A few of the many pictures I took can be seen in the gallery below the break.