Simply Spectacular

My main goal this morning was to be the first one at the trailhead. Others have been arriving before me to frighten away all the wildlife with their loose dogs before I even get a chance to get my camera out of the bag 🙁 I saw the elk herd on my way but unfortunately it was too dark to get a picture of them, but at least now I now know where they are!

As I cleared the ridge the scene before me was truly spectacular… the sun reflecting off the clouds above me was lighting the distant Sangre de Cristo Range with beautiful pink light glowing brightly on fresh fallen snow. The majestic peaks are now buried in their winter mantle of snow and are just amazing to behold.

First to come in to view is what I believe to be Galena Peak. According to the little direction finder gizmo that the parks dept. has placed at the summit, the major feature close to that direction is Hayden Pass, which is also close to Galena Peak.  Even though I was in a hurry to get past all the trees to capture a pano of the entire scene, I didn’t want to take a chance of losing the light so I stopped here to capture the one peak in the beautiful glow of the rapidly approaching sunrise.

Satisfied that I had captured that peak properly, I continued my trek through the snow on the summit of Grouse Mountain to the edge of the clearing. From there you can see the entire Sangre de Cristo Range and the light was still showing the effects of today’s Rocky Mountain sunrise. The conditions lingered long enough for me to capture both a close and a wide pano before the sun was too high in the sky to be able to capture the detail I was hoping for with this scene.

Eventually I continued my trek around the other side of the mountain and back to the trailhead. Along the way I encountered a flock of these curious little “dark eyed junco”, according to my phone app Merlin anyway. I was trying to get closer to them but every time I took a step the flock flew another 10 feet in front of me. I managed to snap a couple of images of these cute little fellows, this being my favorite one 🙂

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