This post is mostly to serve as a reminder that my blog has moved, and it will likely be the last post here. But, the second part of my Colorado trip is now up on my new blog! Head over to abigailithompson.com/blog to check it out. And, while there, hit the subscribe button on the left side to continue to stay up to date with my work. Drop me a comment or email to let me know your thoughts on the new site or images as well!
Happy Friday everyone!
Our fourth day at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) was the most memorable one for me. I already told the full story of the day in my 365 post, so I won’t go into much detail here, but if interested be sure to click the link and check it out for even more pictures as well.
My family and I had decided to climb up Longs Peak on the fourth day since it looked like the weather would be the best then. I was nervous, but was intent on making it to the peak. However, altitude sickness got the best of me and I had to turn around right as the sun was beginning to come up. Luckily I was able to make it a ways up before sunrise so I was still able to get some sunrise picture. Although, I didn’t want to add any extra weight with my tripod so I had to hand hold everything (or rested my camera on a rock).
I don’t usually share personal pictures, but I thought I would share this one that I took of me and my mom on the hike back down just for fun.
While we were hiking up it was completely dark, and so although I could hear a bunch of waterfalls and streams I couldn’t see any. Turning around early ended up working out well for photographs though, because the light on all of the little streams was just perfect.
Once we got back to the parking lot we took some naps and read and just relaxed while waiting for the rest of our group to finish their hike. After a bit we decided to go on a short little hike to an old mining sight. There wasn’t much left there, but I did get some more pictures of streams and waterfalls of course.
When we got back we didn’t have long to wait before half of our group (one of my brothers and my sister) got back to the parking lot, so we chatted with them until my dad arrived to bring some of us back to the campsite. The storms were starting to roll in at that point, which created the usual amazing clouds. I couldn’t resist taking pictures so I stuck my camera out the window once again.
At the campsite I sat in my hammock reading and sleeping until my other brother and his wife came back with my mom. Since they made it to the peak they didn’t finish until 3:00pm or so. Once everyone was back we went in to town to shower for the first time all week, and eat a quick dinner since we were all too tired to make anything. On the drive back into the campsite there was a rainbow right over the valley, so I hopped out of the car to get some pictures, and was surprised by a second rainbow showing up. All I could think of was the double rainbow video, which if you haven’t seen it be sure to go check it out if you want to get a good laugh for the day.
I had been wanting to capture the mountains in the valley at sunset all week, and this was as close as I was going to get, which luckily ended up being pretty good timing.
And now I have finally shared all of the pictures from our stay at Rocky Mountain National Park; it only took me a couple of months. I hope you all enjoyed them!
I finally finished up the editing of all the pictures from my camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) that I went on at the beginning of August, so now it is time to share. I decided the best way to do so would be to have a separate post for each day, so get ready for five long posts with lots of pictures. Hopefully you all enjoy them!
Our first full day in RMNP was close to perfect. Since it was our first day in the high elevation we went on a nice starter hike to get acclimated. An easy starter hike for my family isn’t exactly the typical easy hike though. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the trail that we took, I just know that we went past Cub Lake and hiked past Big Thompson Falls, which I thought was appropriate.
We turned back a little earlier than planned because the afternoon storm was moving in quick, and it looked like a bad one. But I have to say I enjoyed these afternoon storms, because they created some awesome cloud conditions.
That evening while we were hanging out at our campsite we got a little bit of rain, but it was completely sunny throughout the entire thing. It was absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately my photographs didn’t come close to showing just how stunning it really was.
*Wednesday, August 3 – Rocky Mountain National Park (Bierstadt Lake)
On Wednesday we decided we needed a short hike and a relaxing day since we were planning on hiking up Longs Peak the next day. We had wanted to go to Bear Lake, but the line for the shuttle to the trail head was extremely long so we thought it would be more enjoyable to go to the less popular Bierstadt Lake. We found a great little spot to sit right next to the lake, and we were able to walk in the water a little bit since there was a little natural beach area. Most of us just sat on the rocks and read, ate some lunch, and enjoyed the beautiful weather and view. This duck swam up to us at one point and I was able to get within feet of her for some pictures. She just went right on preening as if I wasn’t there.
I obviously had pictures of the beautiful scenery and what not, but I wanted to keep my 365 diverse. I don’t want to have a week of landscape shots every single day.
*Sunday, July 31 – Just entering Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP)
Sunday morning we all got up early and packed up some more stuff from my brother’s house and got on the road to head to RMNP. It was around a 6 hour drive through the rest of South Dakota (my brother lives in Spear Fish, where we spent the night), Wyoming, and then finally Colorado. When we got to the park it started storming, and when we turned on to the road to our campground this was the view that greeted us. I actually took this in the car as my brother continued to drive, so I was lucky it turned out so well! It was one of the few pictures I managed to get that day (really the only good one) since we were in the car for most of the day. And the rest of the night was spent setting up all four tents and getting our stuff set up inside them, and making dinner. We were all pretty exhausted from the drive and such and so we headed to bed pretty early.
Abigail Thompson Photography 