Colorado Captures

With a hairbrained idea and a couple of friends, I went on a mission to get to the summit of Shoshoni Peak by sunrise. The plan meant leaving the trailhead a little after 11pm, hiking up to Lake Isabelle… then on up to the top of Pawnee Pass, and then finally, traverse the ridge (with a couple of unnamed peaks in the way) to to the summit of Shoshoni Peak (elevation 12,967 feet). Our timing put us up above timberline under a full moon during the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower – providing some extra entertainment during our little stops on the way up the trail.

Shoshoni Peak Sunrise
This image was captured from the summit of Shoshoni Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado. I used both of my GND filters, but I still couldn’t capture the wide dynamic range of a sunrise. So in the end, I did some gentle HDR processing as well. With our timing, we got a bit lucky with a layer of low clouds over the eastern plains – adding even more to the beauty. And while we couldn’t capture it with wide angle lenses, later on we saw three little hot air balloons floating above the clouds somewhere north of Boulder. Very cool!

I’m sure glad I had friends, Wayne, Craig, and Greg join me on this trip because that ridge between the top of Pawnee Pass and Shoshoni Peak was a challenge on its own. I knew that route had no trail, but much of the way was riddled with big giant boulders. In fact, with 2 peaks to go before Shoshoni and all the boulders in the way, I considered not continuing on to the peak.

But then, two things happened. The cold started to chill me to the bone. And with enough time to go for it, I saw Wayne making his way to the peak. Figuring I had to move to stay warm anyway, I pulled energy out of somewhere and made my way to Shoshoni Peak as fast as I possibly could. Close to the peak, I pretty much ran past a Ptarmigan (the first I’d ever seen up close). He was posing in front of the sunrise glow and squalking really loud. It seemed he knew I couldn’t stop and take his picture. I raced on up to the peak just before sunrise. And with that, I got the prize for beating mother nature’s first light to the peak. Good thing I wasn’t racing Wayne!!

In the end, we climbed around 2,400 vertical feet over 10.5 miles.

Apache Moon
One nice thing about hiking to an incredible spot at just the right time is that sometimes I get a great view behind me too!

Apache Peak and Isabelle Glacier appear together with a full moon and pink glowing clouds in this amazingly colorful scene taken just before sunrise. I really liked how the lighting changed so quickly with each passing moment. These images were taken with GND filters from the summit of Shoshoni Peak (elevation 12,967 feet) after a night-time hike in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado.