Today, was a sunrise day on the Dallas Divide. We were returning to CR5 where we had shot last week. It's one of the few areas I know of that has the mountains facing more toward the east. We arrived right before sunrise and got set up. In a few minutes, two more photographers joined us. It was a great sunrise--every place except for where we were shooting. It was amazing to the east behind us, but there was nothing to shoot there. Later, it was great to the north, but we wanted good light over the peaks of Dallas Divide. What salvaged the sunrise was the ever-changing light as the storm approached. Shortly after sunrise, the clouds started lighting up to produce a golden background for Mt. Sneffels. For a short time, the clouds began to disperse and we had hopes that it would clear up. Those hopes were dashed as the storm front completely overwhelmed the peaks.
It started to rain as we were packing up. It turned out to be a hint of the rest of the day's weather. So much for our plans to drive the Owl Creek road. We returned to camp and had breakfast and then relaxed the rest of the morning. In the late afternoon, we drove in to Ouray to do some t-shirt shopping. We hit the jackpot. I got two t-shirts and a new hat. We even found a cool Christmas ornament; hand painted in China. Oh, well...
Just as we were returning to camp, we noticed a gap in the clouds right at the horizon. The sun was setting right into that gap and the clouds along Dallas Divide were glowing. It was the kind of opportunity that can make a trip. Once again, we were just a little out of step and missed it. We tried shooting from the cliff behind our campsite, but we had missed our chance.
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