Photo Journal & Trip Reports (Colorado)

Please enjoy these photo journals and trip reports from some of my outdoor photography adventures, starting with the most recent. You can subscribe to follow my latest blog posts (and any other blogs as well) by using a feed reader such as Inoreader or Feedly.

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Latest Photo Stream — Latest Photo Stream

Nowadays | Mostly Colorado

This "Photo Stream" is a repository of miscellaneous latest photos mostly from around where I live in Ridgway at the foot of the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado.

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Aurora over the Sneffels Range — Aurora over the Sneffels Range

October 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Leading up to October 10, 2024 a severe geomagnetic storm was forecasted after a strong solar flare erupted from the sun the previous day. The news was full of reports forecasting a KP8-level aurora that should be visible even as far south as the southern United States! With such an optimistic aurora forecast and good weather I decided spontaneously to hike and camp up high in the San Juan Mountains for a chance to view this incredibly rare event.

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Indian Summer in the San Juans — Indian Summer in the San Juans

October 10, 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The aspen colors have been brilliant again this autumn season here in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. But so have the skies! For most of late September and early October the weather has been warm and dry, with relentless blue skies and no snow on the peaks...

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Sleepless with Longs Peak — Sleepless with Longs Peak

September 2024 | Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

In mid-September after visiting friends and running errands in Denver and Fort Collins, Claudia and I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park, where I had reserved some last minute wilderness camping permits for three nights...

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Sangres Seven Pass Loop — Sangres Seven Pass Loop

September 2024 | Sangre de Cristos, Colorado

Looking at a topographic map of Colorado, the Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado is the easiest mountain range to recognize - a straight and solitary line of mountains stretching down the center of the southern portion of the state...

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Ragged Elks Trek — Ragged Elks Trek

September 2024 | Elk Mountains, Colorado

At the end of August and beginning of September, Claudia and I joined our friends Ann and Holly for an ambitious 5-day trek through the Elk Mountains, Ruby Range, and Ragged Mountains - a 50 mile traverse through some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in Colorado, between the towns of Aspen, Crested Butte, Marble, and Paonia...

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3 Days In the Grenadiers — 3 Days In the Grenadiers

August 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

With a brief window of decent weather between monsoon storms, last week I ventured back into the Weminuche Wilderness for a quick but strenuous solo 3-day backpack trip through the rugged Grenadier Range via a series of high passes and lots of off-trail rock hopping...

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Threading the Needles — Threading the Needles

July 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

At the end of July I ventured out for a 6-day solo backpack trek through the Needle Mountains, a remote and rugged sub-range of the greater San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. This was the seventh trek I've done in this specific range (not counting other nearby trips within the Weminuche Wilderness), though it has actually been six years since my last visit...

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Wandering in Wildflowers — Wandering in Wildflowers

July 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This week my wife and I ventured into the mountains near Silverton, Colorado for a wonderful 3-day trek through the wildflowers! We shuttled cars and did a one-way trailhead to trailhead walk - another variation of a trek that we've done two previous variations of, and we also included two exploratory side hikes each evening...

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Down in the Narrows — Down in the Narrows

May 16, 2024 | Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is easily one of the most awe inspiring sights in Colorado. Carrying snowmelt down from a broad watershed of the West Elk, Elk, Sawatch, and San Juan Mountains, the Gunnison River roars through 2,000 sheer vertical feet of 1...

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Knowles/Mee Canyons Loop — Knowles/Mee Canyons Loop

April 23, 2024 | Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness, Colorado

Hungry for a desert adventure, in mid-April I headed to the canyons west of Grand Junction in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness, an area I'd never visited before, for a 36-mile loop trek going down Knowles Canyon, along the Colorado River, then up Mee Canyon. This was a fantastic but strenuous trek through seriously awesome canyon country.

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Over the Rockies — Over the Rockies

April 3, 2024 | Colorado

Whenever we fly from Denver to Montrose (or vice versa) I always try to reserve a window seat on the north side of the plane since you get wonderful views looking right down at the Elk Mountains, Gore Range, and Front Range. The timing was great with this flight as we flew over the mountains right as the sun was setting! So of course I was snapping away with glee. It's always fun to see so many recognizable peaks and valleys from an aerial perspective.

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Waiting for Winter — Waiting for Winter

December 2023 | Ridgway, Colorado

Winter is off to a slow start here in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. We've gotten a few snow storms here and there, and the snowpack is gradually growing inch by inch in the mountains, but winter is taking its sweet time so far...

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Fall Colors in the San Juan Mountains — Fall Colors in the San Juan Mountains

October 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This October we had yet another glorious season of autumn colors here in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. Having just returned home from a long road trip to Idaho and California, I was content to hang around close to home so I mostly just visited some of my favorite aspen forests around the Sneffels Range area near Ridgway and Telluride...

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Paintbrush and Columbine — Paintbrush and Columbine

August 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, what was shaping up to be an epic wildflower season in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado was a bit stunted by a month of hot sunny weather in July. Nevertheless, the residual moisture from the big winter snows and wet spring storms seem to have won out in many areas where glorious fields of wildflowers have sprung up in late July and early August...

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Above the Uncompahgre Gorge — Above the Uncompahgre Gorge

July 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Last week in mid-July I did a pleasant 3-day solo backpack loop through the Uncompahgre Wilderness above and east of the town of Ouray, Colorado. This is a favorite trek I've done numerous times before but this time I varied my camping destinations and did a bit of exploring along the way, and I also had a notable encounter with the local wildlife!

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Sneffels Summertime — Sneffels Summertime

July 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

At the beginning of July I spent a pleasant evening and morning on a high ridge in the Sneffels Range with a wonderful view facing my favorite mountain: Mount Sneffels.

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Sunrise on Wilson Peak — Sunrise on Wilson Peak

May 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

In late May during this spring of unusually stormy weather here in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, I finally had a clear weather window to go for a more ambitious high-altitude photo mission. I've had a particular photo idea of Wilson Peak in mind for several years and now would be a good time to go for that!

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Some Early Season Backpacking in Colorado — Some Early Season Backpacking in Colorado

May 2023 | Colorado

The weather this spring has been quite wet in the mountains of southwest Colorado with frequent rain and thunderstorms, almost like an early monsoon pattern. The unsettled weather has dissuaded me from attempting any high camps in the snow so far, but with a hankering for some backpacking I have been seeking out some lower elevation destinations this May for some quick backpack outings...

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Sliding into Spring — Sliding into Spring

April/May 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

I'm a month late with this post, but I thought I'd share some snapshots from a few spring skiing days in late April/early May here in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. I didn't get out as much as I expected this spring, due in large part to unusually thunderstormy weather in May but also just generally being too busy on the computer (something I'm trying consciously to change in my life)...

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Winter Scenes around Ridgway — Winter Scenes around Ridgway

March 2023 | Ridgway, Colorado

The 2022/23 winter has been one to remember, with numerous "atmospheric river" events bringing record breaking or near-record snowfall throughout the West (particularly in California and Utah, which both shattered their all-time snowfall records with over 800-900" inches of snow in some places!)...

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Winter Skies over Sneffels — Winter Skies over Sneffels

November 2022 | Ridgway, Colorado

Earlier in the month I complained a bit about how strenuous my last backpack trip was. Turns out it was more strenuous than I initially thought, as I had badly strained my calf near the end of that trip...

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Aspen Immersion — Aspen Immersion

October 2022 | Colorado

Autumn really put on a show this year in Colorado, with snowy peaks and brilliant aspen colors. Most notably, the golden aspen colors were nearly two weeks late and lasted for longer into October than I ever remember happening before...

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Sultan Sunset — Sultan Sunset

September 2022 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

In late September my wife Claudia and I spent a chilly but pleasant evening watching the sunset from the 13,368 ft. (4074 m) summit of Sultan Mountain, high above the town of Silverton in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado...

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High Hanging Fruit — High Hanging Fruit

August 2022 | Sneffels Range, Colorado

When I first moved to southwest Colorado in 2006 I had a good 5-10 year stretch when the San Juan Mountains were pretty much a blank canvas for me for planning grand backpack treks and discovering loads of unique scenes to photograph...

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Wild in the Gore Range — Wild in the Gore Range

August 2022 | Gore Range, Colorado

High above the bustling ski town of Vail and the drone of cars and trucks zooming along Interstate 70 rise the rugged mountains of the Gore Range, surrounded by civilization yet harboring some of the burliest peaks and wildest valleys in Colorado...

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Light in La Platas — Light in La Platas

July 2022 | La Plata Mountains, Colorado

La Plata Mountains are located just northwest of the town of Durango, Colorado, in the southwest corner of the greater San Juan Mountains. I guess it shows how vast the San Juans are that it's taken me 16 years to finally go visit La Platas! I've spied their rugged ridges off in the distance many times from the Weminuche Wilderness or the western San Juans, but for some reason I just never got around to driving down there...

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Home Light — Home Light

July 2022 | Ridgway, Colorado

During the first week of July, the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado have experienced a strong monsoon weather pattern, bringing many moments of extraordinary weather and light. Here are some photos taken over the course of just 5 days, all from my backyard!

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Chasing Sunsets in the Weminuche — Chasing Sunsets in the Weminuche

June/July 2022 | Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado

After a dry and extremely windy spring, this summer so far a strong monsoon weather pattern has settled in over the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, bringing much needed rain along with plenty of lightning and thunder...

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Winter in the San Juans — Winter in the San Juans

Winter 2022 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The 2021-22 winter season was extremely busy for me - but not with photography or snowboarding... my wife and I finished building our new house and finally moved in at the end of winter! With life settling back down I finally have a chance to post some photos from the few times I did manage to get out to photograph the mountains this winter...

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