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!

RMNP Day Three

On our third day at Rocky Mountain National Park we decided to take it easy, since we were going to be climbing Longs Peak the next day. We woke up and took our time getting ready for our hike more than we usually do, so I had time to grab some pictures of the flowers around our campsite with the morning dew and sun.

Our easy hike for the day ended up being to Bierstadt Lake. The hike was a pretty steep one, and we were mostly in the woods so there wasn’t much of a view except for a few times.

When we arrived at the lake I was in awe. It was absolutely stunning there, like a dream. We spent the afternoon sitting by the lake, reading, with my feet in the water. It couldn’t have been much more perfect.

The water was so incredibly clear, and it was surprisingly warm for being a mountain lake. It was perfect for dangling my feet in while I read.

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may remember that my 365 for this day was a duck. We were sitting there relaxing and this duck swam up and just hung around us for a while. So of course I took a ton of pictures.

Then the afternoon storms started to roll in. We wanted to get down to our car before it started to rain, but my brother and dad had gone off to hike to another lake so while we waited around for them I got some more pictures of the incredibly scenery and the clouds that were moving in.

My brother started skipping rocks then, which I couldn’t avoid taking a picture of, so I went with it.

And lastly, I couldn’t leave the lake without showing some love to my analogue sunrise decorated nalgene.

 

46/52 – Smoke and Mirrors

This weekend I went on a mini spring break trip to Gatlinburg, TN with a group of some great friends. I had wanted smoke bombs for pictures for a long time, and since I was in TN I just had to buy some. This is not anywhere near my original idea, but I kind of love how it turned out.

Big, big thanks to all the helpers I had for this picture! I couldn’t have done it without you guys!

211/365 – Minneapolis Greenway

**All caught up! For now at least. I have surgery tomorrow morning so I don’t know what all I will be able to do afterwards. I may not even be able to get a picture, but I am going to try my best.

Today was such a perfect day. I drove to my sister and brother-in-law’s house in Minneapolis, and we hopped on our bikes and headed down the greenway to the Uptown Art Fair.

The Greenway is such an awesome thing. It is basically like a highway for bikers and walkers. it is goes through the entire city, and most of the time is down below the road (like this picture). There are even exits off of the bike path to the main roads, it is so funny. And a couple of businesses have started beautiful gardens along the greenway, so it is very pretty. It certainly made me fall in love with Minneapolis, even though I had been there numerous times.

Become a fan on Facebook at Abigail Thompson Photography!