I don’t know what all I’ve been finding to do lately that’s more important than getting out in the high country and hiking and capturing fall pictures. But today I finally awoke early and found the motivation to get in the Jeep and go look for pictures of autumn color.
Although fall colors were my reason for going out, what I really wanted was to capture the foliage with an elk in front of it! A few years ago large herds of elk gathered on top of my mountain at the edge of the aspen forest for the annual rut season.
So the first thing I tried was a hike through the dense aspen forest in hopes of finding the elk herd scattered out on the mountain tops.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. There was no sign the elk had been around at all in recent times. However this beautiful aspen tree was glowing brightly in the morning sunlight, and I really like this image of the dry mountain grass in front of the tree with the dense pine forest of a higher mountain in the background.
The only wildlife I saw were a few mountain bluebirds hopping around on the old abandoned mining equipment. I think this is one of the young ones from this season’s hatch. He posed a good long time while I worked to capture the perfect light.
With no real wildlife to shoot, I turned to the available domestic animals to add context to this image. The free range cattle seemed to be enjoying he beautiful weather on this magnificent autumn morning.
I think the owners of this abandoned mine would have also enjoyed this beautiful morning too… if they were still alive that is. From the looks of it, no one has plunged a shovel into the ground in about a century. This mountain top was probably barren the last time this mine was worked.
Why this lone aspen tree decided to put down roots on this lonely hillside is unknown. However, it’s solitude captured my imagination and of course I had to capture the image.
The south face of Pikes Peak was the next goal of my morning. I saw it a couple of days ago, and I was guessing the colors would peak today. I’m not sure I was correct in my estimation, but I’ll go back on Monday and check. Perhaps I’ll bring my EOS-7 film camera, now loaded with a 36 exposure roll of Kodak Ektar 100.
Finally, I noticed that the colors are changing on the historic Goldfield mining district where the old mines have been preserved in a nice park for tourists to visit. Here are a few of my favorite images from that effort:
I’m getting ever closer to publishing Thundering Hooves, so stay tuned to this channel!
Photographer and author Steven W. Krull has been photographing and writing of the beauty and wildlife of the Colorado Rocky Mountains for over two decades. Visit his complete works on his website at swkrullimaging.com
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Colorado Photographer / Author / Wildlife Advocate | Steven W. Krull 