The Ohio Pass Road was so spectacular yesterday, we wanted to shoot it again with sunrise light. We wanted the curve
overlooking the miles of aspens and the view of The Castle. We timed it nearly perfectly and arrived just a few minutes
before sunrise. We had a few minutes of good light, but it was gone very quickly. There wasn't a cloud in the sky,
so the golden light was very short. It was fascinating to watch the sun light up the aspens as it crept down the mountainsides.
Since we were so close, we couldn't resist shooting "Kebler Curve" one more time. As I shot the first couple shots,
I realized my camera had been on ISO 1600 for the entire sequence of shots for sunrise. I blew it!
The early morning light at Kebler Curve was great, and it lit up the dike on the south side of the road. The pond just below the curve was also lit, so we had plenty of subjects for our relatively short opportunity here. Then it was on to Irwin Lake to check out the reflections and the brightly colored mountains in the background. It certainly wasn't spectacular, but we got a couple nice shots at Irwin.
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| East Beckwith Mountain | The Dyke and Ruby Peak |
After shooting Irwin Lake, we had to hustle back to camp because checkout time was 11:00. We left Mesa RV Resort at 11:05.
We drove to Ridgway State Park, where Carol and I had stayed the last time we were in Ouray. Then we turned into the Keystone Cops. It took us nearly two hours to find and set up in a campsite. First, we had to find the perfect campsite with just the right view. We quickly narrowed it down to two sites, but had a hard time choosing between them. After choosing a site, we pulled in and tried to set up the motorhome so the slides would open "around" the trees and where the motorhome was level enough. We finally gave up on our first choice and returned to our second choice. Too late. It was now taken. We returned to a different loop of the campground and finally selected a site. Then it was routine setup, until I realized that we had driven with the emergency brake on all the way from Gunnison. Yikes! I need to read that checklist more carefully.
We finished setup and had hot dogs to provide sustenance to get us through our sunset shooting.
We started shooting at Ralph Lauren's Ranch, the Double LR, and then drove the Last Dollar Road to the Last Dollar Ranch to shoot the sunset. The late afternoon light was wonderful at Last Dollar Ranch. The tall grasses in the foreground were golden with the snow-frosted peaks standing in the background. I think we'll both have good images from this sunset.
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| Ralph Lauren's Ranch | Last Dollar Ranch |
We were returning to camp after sunset as we crossed Dallas Divide and were surprised by the full moon peeking over the Own Creek formations. We quickly pulled over at the Dallas Divide overlook and started shooting. Because it was a day later than our normal night for shooting moonrise at sunset. we had serious problems with exposure. I finally gave up and limited my image to just the full moon. I couldn't add the surrounding mesa and still hold the exposure of the moon. Although I didn't get any great shots, the shock of suddenly seeing the moon rising above the plateau was amazing.
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