Colorado in July (Part 1)

The week before I was in Lexington to shoot Darren and Mary’s wedding I traveled out to Colorado with Scott for a week of vacation. The first part (Monday-Wednesday) of the trip was spent in Colorado Springs with some friends, and then the rest of the week we were in Denver with Scott’s parents. We managed to climbed every single day that we were there, in a few different locations. It was an absolutely incredible week and I am already looking forward to our next trip out there. I will be breaking the trip up into two posts to avoid one painfully long post.

As I mentioned above, the first part of the week we were in Colorado Springs. We were able to climb for two days in the Red Rocks Canyon Open Space, which was a very different from anything I had climbed before. The rock there is sandstone, so every hold is covered in sand making traction a bit tenuous in spots. The routes we climbed weren’t very vertical and holds were sparse (especially the starts), which really forced you to trust your feet (even though it felt like you would slip off everything), and focus on balance and smooth movements. And, for those of you who may know climbing terms, it forced us to become professionals at mantling. It took a bit to get used to, but was still great fun and was an incredibly beautiful area.

After our second day of climbing in Colorado Springs we headed to Denver to meet up with Scott’s parents. Thursday morning (which happened to be the 4th of July) Scott and I headed out to the Clear Creek Canyon area to try to climb a little before festivities that night with his family. Clear Creek was vastly different from the Red Rocks area. Just getting to the wall was a bit of an adventure; it was a steep scramble (a 4th class scramble to be exact) to the wall, with a road and a river raging below. Instead of slick sandstone it was blocky granite, which was kind of a relief for me. We didn’t have much time there unfortunately, and due to an elbow injury I wasn’t able to climb much anyways. I also didn’t take many photographs at this particular spot (and I didn’t really get any of the wall that we climbed), other than quick shots before we left.

It is tough to see, but there are 3 giant eagles’ nests up there.

That night we went to a Rockies game at Coors Field. It was an incredible stadium, and the perfect place to be on the Fourth of July. In front of us sat a beautiful baseball field, to the right a stunning mountain range; perfection in my mind. We also watched the fireworks from the stadium and even though our view was blocked by part of the building it was still one amazing night.

That’s all for now though, so be on the lookout for the second installment very soon!

Colorado

The second part of my spring break involved a quick trip out to Denver, Colorado to visit my best friend, Blair, as well as my brother and his family who came down to visit. It was unfortunately cut short because of the storm that hit out there, but I still was able to have two solid days of spending time with some of my favorite people.

The first day out there Blair and I drove to Boulder to do some hiking. It was raining when we got there, but right when we started out hike it cleared up and left us with some awesome clouds.

Friday (my second day there) I met up with my brother, his wife, and twin boys who were in town to see me. We spent most of the day at the aquarium in Denver. I didn’t shoot nearly as much as I expected, since I was more focused on just enjoying my time there with them, but I did get some images of jellyfish, which I have always wanted.