June 15th - The new 2024 ARKANSAS WALL CALENDAR is IN STOCK AND available to order! All 13 gorgeous color photos were taken within the past year specifically for this new calendar. I will have a limited supply at the gallery for pickup ($15), and a few retailers will stock them eventually. But you can order direct from our distribution partner, the University of Arkansas Press right now here. I'M HEADED BACK TO ARKANSAS TODAY so no photo tomorrow morning...

Journal updated June 14th

Our CANVAS GALLERY will be open for walk-ins this Saturday, 06/17/23, and is also available for appointments almost anytime - click for info.

06/01/23 A bit chilly early this morning at 32 degrees, but bright sunshine so it will warm up in a hurry. We had a lot of rain and thunderstorms yesterday, even one bout of hail that piled up a half inch deep. I spent a good part of the day still trying to get settled in and get camp organized, which included trying to figure out how to stop a leaking shower head (I could not - guess I need to take the mixer apart and figure out if there is a rubber washer that’s gone bad and hope I can find a faucet repair kit in town - I’m not much of a plumber.)

My goal yesterday was to get my boat on the water (Big Meadows Reservoir about ten miles from here) and paddle a while, but I made a critical mistake (or rather was just lazy) of not getting my boat into the van before it rained. I’d inflated the boat and patched a hole from a previous float down the Buffalo River (to take a picture of the Buffalo Arch with my tent at night - that photo made it into my 2024 Arkansas Wall Calendar, yea!). Hole patch went well, but the boat got soaked from all the rain and I didn’t want to load it wet into the van (was trying to transport it fully inflated so I wouldn’t have to do so at the boat ramp).

In the meantime I spent a few hours hiking around in the rain here - trying to average about ten miles a day on this trip. While the rain was cold the cool temp felt great and I could hike full speed - even push myself a bit when going uphill. Actually my plan B was to have spent the day inside the warm shed (that I’d insulated last year) working on an update to the May Journal - but I failed to type even a single word - oops! And now the clock has flipped into June - at least I’m talking about not writing about several great trips I had in May so at least that is a start! If/when I ever get May update I will post here in case you want to go have a look.

Some nice Mountain Lupine wildflowers popping up here and there but not many other wildflowers yet.

Four Mule Deer munching on wet meadow grass right now seem to be getting more friendly - I'm hoping they don't get too friendly and come up to the campnig pad and eat the Sweet Basil plant I'm hauling around (for pizza and smoothies). Where are my lazy dogs when I need them?! Actually Pam is back home and got them summer hair cuts yesterday. Speaking of asmoothie, I haven't had breakfast yet - now where did I put that basil plant?

One of our nearby mountains, Del Norte Peak, got a good bit of snow yesterday - this view is from near the top of my normal hike route this morning.

06/02/23 It was a chilly 24 degrees wind chill when I finally got up and outside this morning. Slept in ‘till almost sunrise after a late night getting home and then trying to figure out what the heck I had done picture-wise during my trip back from the paddle yesterday. (in other words, lazy) Bright sunshine this morning but it took a good while for the temp to get into the 40’s, and eventually low 50’s. Then clouds and rain moved in and the temps dropped, and I disappeared into the shed.

After dinner I headed out to see if I could find anything to take pictures of in the Beaver Creek drainage just west of us. I hiked into a small lake that’s literally just over the ridge from our campsite (Million Reservoir, a couple of miles over there as buzzards fly), but found it quite low (most other lakes are FULL and overflowing). Nearby campgrounds were either empty or only a couple of sites taken - seems to be taking a while for this part of Colorado to warm up from a heavy winter.

But thankfully the Beaver Creek drainage that I was driving along was flush with spring runoff and singing loudly! Lots of big, round boulders scattered along this creek, with lots and lots of whitewater. But first I made it to Beaver Resorvoir, and it too was low - like 15-20 low or more. And there were three guys fishing - and no one else. This place is usually crowded with bank fisherman and boats. Must be the weather I guess. I turned around and headed back towards camp.

Didn’t take long to find an amazing creek scene right next to the road, so I parked and ran over to the edge of the gorge and set up my camera and tripod and spent the next 30 minutes taking pictures of the roaring creek far below me. As frequently happens, as soon as I set up the Beast camera on my tall tripod, traffic started to appear. And with the camper van parked on the other side of the narrow gravel forest road, there wasn’t a lot of extra room for folks to pass, and each time I grew nervous and would wrap myself around the camera and tripod setup until they passed.

What first stopped me at this location was a bright beam of sunshine illuminating a small section of the creek - that light only lasted two or three minutes, and while I got a photo or two, I know it would have been much better about ten minutes before I arrived - made a mental note to return in another day or two and see if I can catch more light there.

But no matter, I was finally - after driving by this creek for many years without stopping - out on the ground taking pictures. And there were plenty of scenes and scenes-within-scenes to shoot. I spent the next hours along a couple hundred yard stretch of the creek taking pictures - all with me on the edge of the deep gorge with camera pointing down to the creek. Kind of funny, but so many photographers pack up and leave when the sun goes down, but for me that’s when the light often gets a lot more interesting, as it did today.

I had already eaten dinner before I left, so when I got back to camp I started the download of pictures to the computer, then I headed out into the full-moon night to get a couple of miles hiking in. It was a beautiful full moon lighting up everything all around, the those two miles just sort of drifted along quickly. I was hoping there wasn’t a coyote or panther out there somewhere just waiting for me to come along for a snack.

When I got back I was determined to go through the photos to pick and process a few to show you - a lot of times what the camera captures really doesn’t match what you saw and experienced while being there in person - in fact that’s almost always the case. But with the Beast camera (that I’m borrowing from a friend) often I’m able to find more detail, color, and LIFE when I view the images zoomed WAY in - there’s SO MUCH tiny detail this camera captures that I never see in person. And so it’s a joy to get to see all that detail. Problem is that I’d love to make six-foot-wide prints of them all for you to see, but truth is most photos I take will never be seen by anyone, much less as a large print. But maybe one or two will get there.

Near midnight now again and I’m ready to go howl at the moon for a few moments before crawling into my sleeping bag. THANK YOU for having a look!

06/03/23 Some random notes from the campsite. My normal daily routine is kind of like it is at home. I get up early, have an Iceland cup of mocha, then a large HEALTHY smoothie (water, protein mix, yogurt, ground-up seeds, heaping handful of spinach and fresh sweet basil*, and a cup of mixed frozen fruit, and a protein bar. Then I’m off for a hike up to the top of our neighborhood and back, with an added side trip around the lower loop - about 3 miles total. Associated chores filll the morning, then my normal wrap for lunch - high protein wrap, turkey, Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese slices, and a large pile of spring greens. Afternoons are spent with more chores, online research, another cup of Iceland mocha, and usually an early dinner of rotisserie chicken, rice, and California blend frozen veggies. Then my goal is to either head out with my boat for a few hours until dark, or find someplace to take pictures until dark, or both. Back to camp to download and process images, or clean up my boat. More online research/reading and a tiny glass of red wine from a box (I can only handle 2-3 ounces of wine - any more of that and I just get a headache and go to bed - same with any booze - I prefer to not get a headache so never drink much of anything - except for lots of WATER!). It’s been midnight or later to bed so far this week.

*I brought a nice healthy sweet basil plant here from home that I use for smoothies and as a pizza topping. They love sunshine, but not temps below 50. So I’ve been waiting until mid-morning to set the plant outside in the sunshine, but take it inside the shed when the temps drop. It’s sitting there on the edge of the table right now staring at me - another few degrees and he’ll be basking in the warm sunshine.

There is almost no one here in the upper part of our neighborhood. I’ve only talked with one actual person since I’ve been here, a nice retired couple with a giant log home near the top of the property. Just last year they sold the smallest cabin in the neighborhood (and original log cabin from more than 100 years ago), and moved to a giant beautiful log home way up high. And all of a sudden they are selling that one and moving to the “front range” of Colorado to be near kids and grandkids. They are early risers like me and that’s about the only time I ever see them.

I’ve not seen any of my local deer here in the past couple of days, but I have been seeing a giant marmot that lives in a rock pile across the street - he has a really long fluffy tail that bounces up and down as he rumbles across the meadow.

Here's my first attempt at high-altitude pizza this summer (couple days ago). We have a portable Ooni gas pizza oven. Unfortunately my lovely bride was not here to help so I was forced to eat the entire pizza. TEMP this morning was a balmy 36 when I headed out for my morning hike, which was supposed to be about three miles long. When I got almost all the way back to camp I realized I'd left a jacket on a tree on my way up, so had to go back up and get it, adding two miles to my total - a glorious sunny day in the high country so no complaints.

EVENING UPDATE. I finally got my boating act together and headed back to Big Meadows Reservoir late today - hoping for calm weather and not many people. When I arrived at the lake I found exactly ZERO boats on the entire lake, and only a couple of bank fisherman. But even more important, there was no wind and the reflections were SPECTACULAR! Especially with the snow capped mountains looming over the far end of the lake (some of the snow happened during my last visit to the lake.

My already-inflated boat slid right out of the van next to the water and I was almost all ready to float within just a few minutes. So calm, so peaceful - only a rising trout now and then to add a few ripples to the sea of tranquility. I think this was the first time I’d felt confident that everything with the boat was in order and ready to go.

But then I started my mental checklist that is required before I shove off - Item one, boat, CHECK. Item two, life jacket.

20 minutes later, after I had searched the van from top to bottom, inside and out, three times, I had to accept the fact that I’d left my life jacket back at camp and I would not be getting into the boat today. Bummer! What was probably worse than my disappointment of being on the water with such special conditions, was the fact that I had to deflate and pack up my boat and all equipment in full view of the two guys who had watched with great interest and anticipation my arrival and boat setup. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and never looked at them, then crawled into the van and slowly drove away.

BUT WAIT, the late was really beautiful and I hadn’t taken a picture, so I parked the van and returned to the boat ramp with my big camera to take a picture - just as the wind started to blow and set the perfect lake reflections into motion. Oh well, I had this phone photo to remember what could have been.

I spent the next hour in the same area looking around for something interesting to take pictures of - the setting sun was playing tag with clouds and shadows, and it seemed that each time I stopped and jumped out to try and capture a fleeing scene in the woods, the light would change. I did finally find an interesting burned hillside - and remembered how colorful it had been after a big fire took its toll several years. It probably won’t ever make a top-10 list or hang on anyone’s wall, but I was a happy camper and glad to have made the effort.

On the way back past the lake the Siren Song of another perfect reflection called out to me so I returned to the edge of the lake just as the wind picked up again.

Back at camp after dark (I’d fixed another pizza before I left to go to the lake - ate the entire thing AGAIN - I really miss my wife), I discovered I needed another 2.3 miles to make my 10 miles for the day, so I grabbed a coat and bennie hat with attached light and headed on up the mountain road. It was pretty dark and the moon had not risen yet - or at least had not come out from behind clouds. And I had a nice night hike of nearly there miles. I’m on track to have hiked more than 70 miles here by tomorrow - all of it inside our neighborhood and without ever having hiked on a trail elsewhere yet (I plan to do so, including some long all-day hikes). One reason we have this small plot of land up on the burned off hillside was to be able to hike here all we want and hardly ever see anyone. Mission accomplished - i got more than 10 miles of footwork today - yea!

06/05/23 (from yesterday) After and a mostly sunny day I loaded up my deflated and folded boat (WITH life vest!) and headed back to Big Meadows lake. The lake was mostly calm with only a couple of boats and lots of people around the bank fishing. Since I had spent most of the day inside the shed watching video tutorials on the computer (I’m trying to become a better photographer), I decided to hike around the lake (little over two miles) to stretch my legs and let the lake calm down even more.

It was a beautiful hike that took me over “Lucy Bridge” (our sweet pup, Lucky, made it to this location on her last hike many years ago - I still remember the photo I took of her there - she had a pleased and calm look on her face, and seemed to be telling us it was time for her to retire from a life full lived). On the drive to the lake from camp I noticed the temp had dropped about 20 degrees, and soon I find out why - there was about an inch of slushy hail on the ground, which made for cold, wet feet as I slogged through (wearing my trail-running shoes that are not waterproof - in fact they have drain holes). The far end of the trail was also flooded due to continued heave snowmelt from the surrounding high country in the Wimeneuchite Wilderness area.

Once I got around the head of the lake there was even more slushy hail - up to several inches in place along the trail, but once you feet get all wet inside and out it doesn’t matter too much after that, and I slogged on.

Getting back towards my starting point I passed several fisher people - seemed to be a good day since many literally had bags of trout! (this lake is stocked frequently).

Time to get my boat all set up and on the water - sunset would soon be upon me. And after many practices getting this boat set up, it all went well and only took about 20 minutes. And wouldn’t you know it, just as I was pushing off from shore, it started to rain, hahaha! But it was only sprinkles and soon stopped. I paddled out into a magical wonderland - the lake was smooth as glass with perfect reflections - until of course I messed it all up with my boat.

I paddled over next to the shore and followed it all the way to the far end, where I stopped, leaned back and put my feet up, and took a few moments to breathe in the amazing mountain air (freshly cleaned by the hailstorm and colder temps). ’Tis was a Cloudland Moment for sure.

But no rest for the wicked - while looking around enjoying the magic there was just a hint of approaching sunset colors, and with a few clouds that were hanging our over the snow-capped mountains that loom over this far end of the lake, I figured it would soon be a stunning sunset show. Only two problems - I didn’t have a camera with me, and I needed to be BACK at the OTHER end of the lake a mile away - YIKES!

The serenity was cut short, and I put it into high gear and headed back to the van, and to my camera gear. The harder I paddled with my little Greenland Paddle the more color was building up behind me. All of this was actually a good thing - up to that point I was being just kind of lazy and not paddling too hard, enjoying the calmness and beauty. But the main reason for having this boat was so that I could get some upper body and core strength, which would help out ailing back. So pushing that mile back helped my core no doubt.

And the best part was - I arrived in time, then scrambled to dig out my camera gear and got setup in time to shoot a series of that magical time of day when the hills were lit up with the last colorful rays of the day. AND the lake remained calm for perfect reflections - how often does that happen! (iphone snapshot below - the color got better when I was using the Beast camera)

It was after dark by the time I got back to camp, and I needed another mile for my daily hiking goal so I headed on up the hill just as the moon rose and played tag with clouds. A refreshing hike to end the day - only actually it got all my muscles and mind all worked up so I sat down at the computer and watched another couple hours of my photography class, finally getting to bed after midnight. Total hiking miles - 10.9...

06/07/23 Everything was soaking wet at first light today - a pretty good rain shower had just moved through before dawn, which is unusual for the high country in the summer. Guess it was prompted by the fact it had rained so much yesterday afternoon and evening - some pea-size hail along with just normal but constant rainfall. Most all of this is soaked into the ground and doesn’t seem to pool up and flood roadways like it does back in Arkansas. (At least not right now.) All that rain yesterday saturated everything and that moisture was sucked back up into the air, which produced the rain before dawn today. (Note - I have no idea if this is what really happens, but it’s just what I’ve observed over a few decades of watching such things - a lot of rainfall will produce even more rain later on, even if it is not forecast to do so.)

I had two long hikes yesterday - one early and one late in the day, each about 5.5 miles. Used to be I'd get up and do a quick 2.2-mile hike to the top and back, then I added the additional lower loop, another 1.- something mile, and now I’m adding a couple of extra stretches so the total of my loop is about 5 miles, give or take. I spent almost the rest of yesterday locked inside the shed watching video tutorials about photography. You’d a thunk I’d know it all by now, but quite the contrary - things have changed SO much in just the past couple of years on the processing end of things that there is so much new stuff to learn. The problem is that some of the simple usual few steps it has always taken to process a photo have now changed - and now requires many more and complicated steps to achieve the same clean and simple photos that I prefer. Not sure why this process of being simple has gotten to be so complex, but it has! (One example is a single Milky Way photo that was demonstrated that would have taken me perhaps three of four minutes to press five years ago took the instructor an hour and a half to complete, and included more than TWO HUNDRED layers created along the way! HOLY MOLY batman, I don’t think I’m interested in all of that - but the end result was pretty sweet!)

And one larger note about processing photos that I’m sad to even talk about. The standard image processing software that 95% of the world uses to process digital images - Photoshop - has released what will pretty much be the LAST version of their software for normal photography (Photoshop 2023). FUTURE versions of Photoshop (probably beginning in 2024 - the BETA version is already available) will be driven by artificial intellegance (AI). What I mean is that normal people with snapshots (or just plain nature photographers like me) will be generating pictures that are all or at least partly fake. I’m not taking about simply increasing contrast or exposure or even doing multiple exposures or oamposites (all have been part of photography since the very beginning in the 1800’s). I’m talking about creating pictures from NOTHING.

TO ME, this means the death of traditional photography as we know it. The golden age of photography is about to end, and with a BIG BANG!

I don’t plan to be a part of this AI generation. So while I’ve not really been a full-time nature photographer for the past several years anyway, I have had a resurgence of such in the past few months and can happily say I’ve become a part-time nature photographer again. Not working on any new picture boos, but rather will continue to create new material for our yearly Arkansas Wall Calendar (the 2024 calendar will be available for purchase late NEXT WEEK - and all photos were taken within the past few months specifically for this calendar). And I’ll also start shooting some general nature photos I’m able to take along the way of my daily journeys (with a few stops now and then for some specific and more serious photo shoots that I want to do - just for fun - like Milky Way photos). Selected photos will be available as prints.

On the photo equipment side of things - after spending several months testing some new, smaller, and lighter cameras - I’ve ditched all the new-fangled gear and actually have gone backwards five years and am now shooting with an old camera system of mine that a former student of mine I’d sold it all too has graciously loaned back to me to use for a while. (I may have already posted this info.) I’m THRILLED with the image quality of this old system. Only one problem though - it’s not good for Milky Way photos. UNLESS I’m able to successfully implement and use some specialized star-tracking equipment (pretty easy to use with open skies, but not so easy with the normal scenes in Arkansas that I want to photograph). I’ll be working on that part over the summer both here in Colorado and also back in Arkansas.

New topic.

YESTERDAY, in between all the computer-classroom work, raindrops and hail, I had an important few moments with one of the most beautiful birds we have here in the mountain west. There’s been at least one and maybe two pairs of Western Tanagers here since the first moment I arrived a couple of weeks ago. We’ve heard these birds a number of times here in the past but have seldom seen them, and never for more than a second as a blur flying quickly away. Yesterday as I was headed out for my second big hike of the day, I happened upon a brilliant, beautiful, and bright male only a few feet from me by our gate. He immediately jumped up onto a nearby aspen tree limb - directly behind a group of leaves - all I could see were his feet wrapped tightly around the branch. With iPhone in hand and zoomed in all the way I began to inch my way forward to try and get a clear view of this bird. During the next several minutes of this encounter, each time I could inch my way towards or sideways for an open view of the entire bird, he would accordingly inch his way behind more aspen leaves - sometimes he’d jump to the next limb, but ALWAYS would keep mostly hidden. He never allowed me a clear view

I’M VERY SHY when a camera is pointed at me so I can relate. But it was uncanny how good he was at keeping hidden, especially while both of us were moving around ever so slightly. Since this is the same spot I’ve seen him several times this trip - and also once or twice with a female - I can only deduce that they’ve got a nest there somewhere close. Not wanting to disturb them too much by hiking by all the time I’m trying to figure out an alternate route past the gate - but the problem is that I’ve turned on the electric fence now so the gate is my only way to pass through without getting zapped each time I climb over the electric fence.

In this game of tanager-and-tourist, the tanager has a perfect record! (I don’t have proper photography equipment to get a really good photo of this bird even if he’d let me, so I’ll just be happy to seem his colorful blur now and then and hope their nesting job works out to completion.)

06/09/23 A couple of days ago I headed to nearby Great Sand Dunes National Park in hopes of finding an interesting evening sky to take pictures of (about a two-hour drive away). It had been 28 years since I last visited the park with camera in hand, and on that February trip I climbed far up into the dunes and got an amazing photo of sunset-lit sand dunes against snow-capped mountains in the background. Later that night I drove over to Twin Lakes where I spent the COLDEST night ever in a vehicle - it was 22 degrees below zero when I got out of my old Dodge Caravan at 3am to photograph the moon setting behind ??? Mountain (it seemed colder than that inside the van though!). Despite my efforts, that moon photo was not memorable, but my memory of the better cold certainly was!

It was quite warmer for my trip a couple of days ago as I slogged on up the steep sand dunes in search of a composition - some of the mountains in the background to the east did have a bit of snow, but I ended up facing west as I hiked. There were plenty of dark-gray clouds overhead, but I was hoping a peep hole might open up and spray those clouds with brilliant sunset colors. Never happened. But I did find a spot I liked and took a few photos of the menacing clouds above.

As I was roaming around the southern flanks of High Dune (nearly 700’ tall), I got pounded with a rain shower or two, and even a bit of hail. Funny, but the soft yellow sand (it actually was sand colored) quickly turned very dark with the moisture, and formed a thin crust that made hiking across it not too bad. But I discovered each step would create a shallow crater many times larger than my footstep, which was kind of odd.

When I realized there would be no color after the rain, I took a few last photos of the darkening scene and then headed back to the parking lot. Kind of funny - those who have been know what I’m talking about. There are no trails up on the dunes, and all of the dunes are open to hiking and camping - you can literally go anywhere you want. It’s a massive dune field that stretches for miles and is up to 750 feet tall (Star Dune, tied with Hidden Dune for the tallest sand dune in North America). No problem hiking around during the daytime, but once it’s dark it can be tough sometimes to figure out which way to go - footprints usually get windswept away quickly. Luckily if you stay on the main side of the dune fields the large parking area is always visible far below, across a wide, flat river. Here comes the funny part - this is one of the most recently designated International Dark Sky Parks (like Buffalo National River is back in Arkansas), and they take that moniker seriously here - there isn’t a single light of any sort at or around the large parking area. So I LOVE the dark sky part, but it sure makes it a lot tougher to find your way back on a dark night, haha!

It was about midnight when I got back to the campsite, but since it seemed like the sky was clearing up a bit I decided to drive on up towards the top of our neighborhood to see if there was a Milky Way view. There wasn’t, but I did find a good spot for a future photo - and in fact that’s where I’m at right now tonight as I’m typing this - waiting for the Milky Way to rise above the mountains out there in front of me.

Yesterday I decided to return to the Dunes and had a better plan this time. I would get there early, hike all the way to High Dune (almost 700 feet tall), down the other side to some unknown spot - where I’d be able to turn around and look back towards the Milky Way that was due to rise above the Dunes at about 11pm. Often when you hike in steep sand every time you take a step you slide down a couple, so at times the going was slow - especially since I really didn’t know exactly where I was going!

At one point I reached a pair of chaps who I’d seen climbing up the ridge of a dune kind of next to me - they beat me to the top and were sitting down enjoying the view. Wildland firefighters from Nebraska attending a large training session nearby. They were pretty much pooped out from the climb at elevation. When they asked about all the stuff I was packing and I explained the Milky Way would rise above the mountains in about an hour, they at first seemed very excited. Yet I hadn’t gotten 100 away when I looked around and saw them headed quickly back down to the parking area.

I had hoped to be at least on top of the dunes at sunset, but as usual I had arrived late and sunset happened while I was hiking and I only paused for a moment or two for a phone snapshot. By the time I’d reached the top it was getting dark quickly and had to come up with a plan in a hurry - I needed to find a perfect composition, set up all my gear, and take a “blue hour” photo as they call it, then await the arrival of the Milky Way to shoot the second part of the composition that I had envisioned in my head.

Best laid plans, you know. I didn’t have a clue where i was going or how I would get there! So I spent a pretty frantic 30-45 minutes hiking around looking for the perfect view, and the darker it got that turned into looking for an OK view, and eventually to just a “OK, it’s DARK, I can’t go any more without maybe getting into trouble” so I simply stopped and set up my tripod, in the dark.

My goal was to get a mountain of dunes with the Milky Way rising behind them. The problem was that the massive Sangre De Cristo mountain range towered above the dunes everywhere, and at that late hour I wasn’t prepared to descend into a deep swell of the dune structure to make that happen. It was so dark that I really didn’t know what I was looking at before me until I’d made a very long exposure with the camera - that allowed me to see the scene I’d accidentally stumbled upon - i.e., the place where I gave up trying to find the perfect spot. Looked pretty darn good to me, even though it did have a thin line that were the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background - between the sand and the Milky Way. OK I’ll take it!

So I set up and took pictures there in the dark for the next couple of hours*. Often when I’m doing long exposures I’m able to walk around - an alternative form of pacing - which also helps keep me warm. And while I couldn’t really see what all was around me, I knew I was at the edge of a very tall sand dune that fell steeply a hundred or more feet below to my left - so I had to be very careful while killing time in between exposures (which were in the 1-4 minute range long).

*Since the camera was capturing the scene of the dunes AT NIGHT, I was not able to use a flashlight to find my way around - that would ruin the photo.

Eventually the Milky Way rose into a perfect position above the mountains and the dunes - AND clouds that kept moving on through the scene while I was trying to take pictures opened up a bit where I could get a mostly-clear photo - and I was a HAPPY CAMPER! Now the fun part - how the heck do I get back off this gigantic dune in the dark??!!

The area I’d reached for the shot was far past where normal dune traffic went during the day, and therefore no well-worn hiker trail through the sand. I had planned to simply turn around and follow my own tracks on back up to the big spine of the dune wall (about 3/4 mile or more away), and then mostly just follow the marks of other hikers down the other side and back to the parking lot. Only problem was - the wind. A wind so strong that had forced me early on to wear special clear wrap-around goggles to keep the blowing sand out of my eyes. That worked great. BUT, guess what the wind does with footprints in the sand - OOPS, no footprints to follow - they’d all been blown away!

I don’t travel with bright lights. And the only lights I bought on this trip were tiny one build into my beanie cap - worked great in the thick woods of Arkansas, but the wide diffused light didn’t help a whole lot on these giant dunes I was trying to climb up, or balance myself along a thin, steep edge of sand. But I was in no hurry, and in fact stopped a couple of times to first - catch my breath (I was climbing, clawing up some very steep dunes); and secondly to just BE in the middle of such an amazing place and experience the vastness and great beauty all around. And of course there were no lights or people or anything manmade. In fact there wasn’t a single sound - other than the wind. (usually at night you at least hear a lot of birds, bugs, and frogs - but up on the dunes - nothing) It was all bit overwhelming, and breathtakingly beautiful. I’m finding myself stopping and doing absolutely nothing more and more these days/nights - simply to experience and enjoy the moment.

Well eventually I did make my way back to the top of and all the way down the other side of the dunes to the banks of the very-wide Medano Creek. And a first for me - I just sat down and took off my shoes and socks, and waded all the way across barefoot. The water wasn’t very deep, but it was COLD!

As I left the park and had driven about 10 miles towards camp, I stopped and got out my camera gear again to photograph the sky that was completely clear of all clouds. But OOPS - there was a bit of light pollution that messed up the Milky Way. Then I had one of those slap-your-head moments - it was the MOON rising, which meant my Milky Way photos were done for the night (moonlight washes out the stars so you can’t see very many). As I was packing my gear up and starting to drive away - I had another one of those slap-your-head-moments. MOONLIGHT ON THE DUNES!

So I turned around and sped (at 55mph) ten miles back to the dune parking lot, assembled my camera gear and headed down to the creek and spent the next 30 minutes taking pictures of the great mountain of sand being lit up by the moon. Spoiler alert - while the scene was quite spectacular in person, I never got a photo even worth sharing. But that’s OK, it was still an amazing experience standing out in the middle of the creek with the moonlight, sand, mountains, in my BARE FEET!

So all of that for just two photos - sand dunes and stormy sky, and the Milky Way over the dunes...

06/11/23 Since I didn’t get back from my big two-nights at Great Sand Dunes until almost noon a couple of days ago, I spent the rest of the day inside the shed working on pictures and emails and some business stuff - AND trying to locate a half ton of our new Arkansas 2024 wall calendars that had shipped from our printer in Montana. And being worn out and lazy. But I did get a five-mile hike in during the afternoon, which included a trip to one of my most favorite lookouts in the neighborhood - it’s at the intersection of Elk Court and Bobcat Court near the top of our neighborhood property.

Later on as darkness approached it looked like the sky was going to be CLEAR, so I loaded up the van and headed up the hill to that great lookout spot at Elk and Bobcat and set up my camera gear to see if I could capture me some MILKY WAY! It was kind of weird - being able to drive right to a nighttime shooting location nearby instead of having to hike and hike and hike in the dark to get there and back. While waiting for total darkness before I started shooting, I even got to make a cup of Iceland Coffee and sat in relative luxury to sip it (the front seat of our camper van).

Turns out this overlook was a great place to see the entire Milky Way that’s visible right now. I was a happy camper! I was able to get a photo I’d dreamed of ever since we bought this campsite seven years ago - the Milky Way rising behind the tallest mountain in the area - Del Norte Peak. And I got a lot of steps while shooting long exposures of the Milky Way - unlike the pitch black of the sand dunes, there was enough starlight and a 40’ wide gravel road for me to hike/pace on. And the steepness of that road was a great way for me to keep warm - I’d begin a 2-4 minute exposure on the camera, then hike UP the road for a couple of minutes, then back DOWN to the camera at about the time the exposure was completed. I was back at camp by 2am (yesterday).

I didn'tnotice at the time, but the natural bands of color you see in the sky are "airglow" - this happens sometimes in the western night sky (not so much in Arkansas) Wikipedia info here

I slept in until almost lunch time, then spent almost the entire day back inside the shed again - processing photos and working on, well I’m not sure what I was working on but it took me the rest of the day. As twilight approached I noticed several deer in the meadow our camp. Each time I would emerge from the shed to see how the light was doing - and if the clouds that we’d had all day would be clearing out - it seemed the deer were inching ever closer. Just before dark, I found the skies to be all clear - YIPPIE - so started to get organized for another trip back up to my lookout spot at Elk/Bobcat. Just as I was pulling out I could see five mule deer bucks in the small meadow inside our fence and just below the gazebo. They must have felt safe since only one of them even bothered to look up and see what I was doing. Same deer that had been hanging around all day - and all with forked velvet antlers that were just starting to grow - all of them will be eight point or better I bet, and they will need to learn about staying away from people by hunting season!

I spent the next couple of hours taking Milky Way photos - the stars were brighter than I’d seen this year, though some clouds drifted through the scene now and then. Soon I was happy and pulling back into camp - and found the five bucks still in the yard - all but one bedded down. NIGHT GUYS, I’m going to bed! (no pictures to show for my efforts this ).

06/14/23 THREE DAYS AGO (the 11th) I headed out just after dark to explore an area about 20 miles west of here to see if there was a view of the Milky Way. The area was above Wolf Creek Pass, with an elevation about 11,680’. Even though Wolf Creek Pass gets the most snowfall of anywhere in Colorado most years, I was still surprised to find the hillsides and mountain tops covered with 5-10 feet or more of snow - it’s summertime guys! (there is a ski resort there, so DUH) I planned to take the forest road from the highway on up to the lookout area (about three miles), which is a popular destination for sunsets. But I was really surprised when I could not even FIND the forest road - it was hidden beneath several feet of snow. The forest service has the road to the overlook listed as “Open”, but I guessed that meant only to snowmobiles.

That was probably OK since as I was out there in the dark wandering around trying to figure out where the road was, it started to rain. Clearly there were no stars visible, haha. But I already knew it would be another hour or so before the sky cleared, so I crawled back into the camper van, made a cup of Iceland coffee, and waited. I’ve gotten into this routine when waiting on clouds to clear where I can take a nap for 30 minutes, then get up and check the sky. Sometimes it works, other times not.

This time I was only on my second nap period when I spotted STARS - YEA! So out the door I went and after a little bit of roaming/climbing around on the steep hillside next to the highway I discovered an unobstructed view looking towards where the Milky Way would be once the sky cleared off completely. It usually is tough to tell exactly where the Milky Way is until you take a picture, so I set up my camera gear and had a look. Son of a gun, I was staring directly at the Milky Way that was just beginning to rise above a snow-covered Continental Divide - how great was that!

Quite literally just as I was dialing in the proper exposure on my camera and getting ready to take the first picture, a big batch of clouds rolled in - AND it began TO SNOW! I could already see a thunderstorm going on over yonder just before this - lots of lightning - but this storm snuck up on me from behind. Just for the fun of it I went ahead and took a couple of photos - with the long exposure times I use sometimes the camera captures really wild and whacky colors. So while I never did get any good star photos on this trip, I did confirm it was a great location for Milky Way - and I got a couple of interesting weather photos. Back to camp by about 2am.

TWO days ago (the 12th), after not getting very much accomplished at camp, I was happy to run up north to the little mountain mining town of Creede and grab a couple bottles of special olive oil for my lovely bride back home. (It’s always a spectacular drive through the canyon along the headwaters of the Rio Grande River.) The weather report for the evening was for CLEAR skies and NO thunderstorms, so I decided to make a second trip up to the Wolf Creek Pass area. I wanted to get a good look in daylight at what was up with the forest road that led to the overlook I wanted to get to.

And when I arrived I discovered that after the first part that was covered up with a snowbank, there was clear road ahead. But how far did it go? With a LONG, HEAVY camper van I decided the best thing to so was to explore on foot, so off I went. There were a couple of places with snowbanks across the road but trucks had squished out ruts wide enough for me to get through, so that was a good start. The next half mile was almost completely clear yea! I hiked up about .9 mile from the highway and decided that since there had been other traffic it must be clear the rest of the way.

I practically sprinted back down to the van, then eased my way over the first snow bank and across the next two, UP a sharp switchback, then another half mile of steep but mostly dry dirt road. When I had just passed the point I’d hiked to - at .95 from the highway, OH CRUD - the entire road as far as I could see was solid snowpack several feet deep!!!

Well bummer #1 was that clearly I would not be able to drive to the overlook, nor could I park where I was - this was a narrow one land road (just barely). So I either had to turn around, or BACKUP all the way back down to the highway. Bummer #2 - I either had to turn around or BACKUP all the way back down to the highway! Do you see my concern here? I spent the next hour walking back down and then up again, measuring the width of the road, how dangerous it was on the downhill side without any railings or visible support. I even tried to call Fireman Jeff to see what he would recommend (no answer). One problem was that my van is 24’ wide, and the widest part of the road was about 17’. Somehow that didn’t add up to me, but I sure did NOT want to back my rig down this steep and partly snow-covered road. Basically I was just a chicken either way.

OK, I found one spot where the road was just a little bit wider, but still far less than the length of my van. What the heck, I climbed in and started to creep slowly backwards down the hill. I’ll cut to the punch line. I made it to the widest part of the road and had begun my multi-point turn, having no clue if it was going to work or if I’d be tossed off the hillside in a blaze of glory. And literally, right when I got the van completely sideways with no place to go, Fireman Jeff called me back. I was actually turning the steering wheel when I answered, and without missing a beat I had the sucker headed back down the road without a wiper (I whimpered a LOT, but the van did GREAT!). While Jeff was trying to explain the process, I had already started and completed the five-point maneuver before he knew it. HOLY MOLY BATMAN!

No thanks mister don’t get yourself into that situation again! (Oh and PLEASE don’t tell my wife or show her this photo!)

OK, so there I was back down at the highway and not looking forward to a six mile hike roundtrip UP to the overlook to take Milky Way photos - which by this time I had convinced myself would be the greatest viewpoint ever. And as I sat there pondering what to do, I happened to notice an open peak UP there that at first glance kind of looked like it may have an even better view, and it was just right over there. Well, and UP a ways.

After consulting maps and satellite views, I decided to give that a go - even though I knew it would be a near vertical 750’ climb - it looked REALLY steep - and indeed that was only the half of it.

I won’t get into all of the gory details, but I will say it was probably the steepest non-bluff hillside I’ve ever scaled. I don’t really know what “scaling” means, but about half of my trek I was literally on all fours - spread eagle against the hillside. It was impossible to stand up. I tried to maintain at least a three-point stance, never letting go of the ground. Mind you, it was total darkness all during my ascent - in fact it was almost midnight before I was able to stand up again. WHEW, I was REALLY glad to be off that hillside!

And oh my goodness - I had figured it right - it was a giant, naked hillside that gave me the 180-degree view (north to south) that I needed. So, there was that, plus an elevation of 11,300’. AND perfectly CLEAR skies - YIPPIE COYOTE!

But I had to work fast - the Milky Way had already risen a good bit and I needed to get all my equipment set up and then execute a perfect set of about 15 exposures to capture the entire “arch” of the Milky Way from one end to the other. I’ve only done this successfully twice in my life - once was ten years ago almost by accident, the other time was last week. In fact I spent the next hour or two making five or six of them - although since you never really know if you got it right until later back at the computer, after a lot of computer processing time - will you know if you got everything done correctly. Fingers crossed.

I also spent a good bit of time just taking pictures of the Milky Way in all it’s glory - don’t think I’ve ever photographed it from this high of an elevation before.

Oh, did I mention that the view directly beneath the Milky Way was the snow-covered Continental Divide!? Oh my.

Total darkness all of this, but there was enough starlight for me to see my surroundings a little bit - especially since there was a lot SNOW. In fact in order to escape the high winds hitting that exposed mountain top I had to seek shelter in amongst a group of small trees, which happened to have a small level spot on the snow bank for my tripod and me.

Funny, but that snowbank I was standing on - just a few feet past my tripod the hillside and snowbank took a dive about 1,000’ directly down to the highway far below. I could see headlights coming from out from below the snowbank - it was a very weird feeling. I also knew that was my absolute limit - I could not go any farther - but my spot was perfect.

Backing up for a moment - to the first spot where I came into the open meadow at the top of the hillside. I had set my tripod up with a great view and was getting the camera gear all ready, then hiked over to some stubby trees about 75 feet away to set up a flashlight to shine back at my camera. I’d use this light to focus on, and that would set the focus point to take star photos with (you can’t auto-focus in the dark, but if the camera is focused at 75’ then the stars should be in focus too, should be, most of the time, if you are lucky).

Anyway, while I was over there attaching my little flashlight to the tree, I looked up and saw something REALLY WEIRD. There was a light streaking across the sky - or was it? What? Had the altitude gotten to me? Was I seeing things? And then it hit me - Elon had just launched another set of Star Link satellites - 52 of them in fact. And what I was seeing happening in slow motion in the sky above me was those 52 satellites separating from the mother ship and heading into their own orbits. WOW, it was BEAUTIFUL!

I ran back to the camera, turned it around, and took a picture. Only I forgot that my camera was set to take pictures of stationary stars not 52 satellites in motion. So all I got was a blur. But in the photo you can see my little light over on the tree (the blur is my headlamp turning to run back to the camera), AND the bike helmet that I wear when bushwhacking up steep hillsides in the dark (in daylight too). There weren’t any rocks in this big open mountaintop so I had laid it down beside the camera.

OK, while Elon’s birds quickly flew out of site and I relocated to the snowbank hidden in the scrub trees and took pictures for the next hour or two, one thing that was ever present in the frontal parts of my brain was how to get back DOWN that steepest of all hillsides? For pretty much every inch of the climb UP I kept telling myself there would be NO WAY I’d ever set foot on this steep hillside again! And I didn’t. When I was done taking pictures (actually I could have stood up there all night taking pictures of the Milky Way - it was absolutely a remarkable experience, even if none of the pictures turned out - ’twas an epic time for me just being there), I plotted an alternate route back down to the van. A much longer route, but that was OK. It was a beautiful but cold dark night at the crest of the Rocky Mountains an I was going to take my time and enjoy it. No problems going back down - other than a few deep snow banks I had to manage. But soon I had reached my old forest road enemy, and it took me all the way back down.

BUT WAIT, it was only 2am and the Milky Way was RIGHT there in front of me just begging to have more pictures taken of it! And so I did. I got all of my equipment back out again and spent the next hour taking pictures. And while I still haven’t actually looked at the pictures I had taken up on top, here is one I took at the end of my trip. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did taking it

YESTERDAY (the 13th), I made one last trip to the Great Sand Dunes. I had this photo in my head that I wanted to find and photograph, but of course didn’t have a clue where I’d find it or if it were even possible. Can’t take good photos sittin’ in the shed, so OFF I went!

There were plenty of dramatic clouds in the area as I got close to the trailhead, and I just had to stop and take this one. Oh if those would only hang around for sunset - I bet they would catch on fire!

After arriving about an hour late to the trailhead I hiked downstream for a couple of miles then veered away into the “front range” of the dunes - smaller dunes than the big ones. Out of one of those angry clouds I’d seen before came a dramatic burst of horizontal rain - cold and quite stinging against my only thin layer - I stopped and dug out my rain jacket, but I was already soaked. It wan’t looking too good for sunset cloud color, but that wasn’t my main photo objective anyway, so I continued on, slowed down a bit by the sand dunes.

A few minutes later the wind and rain stopped - someone flipped the off switch. Something was different - an aroma in the air perhaps? I turned around and was nearly knocked over by the INCREDIBLE double rainbow that was behind me. OMG is all I can say. Not only were the colors so intense and vibrant, but the light on the dunes and mountain range were amazing. What was not really good was were I stood - the composition was no good. What to do, what to do!

All I could do was turn away and RUN to see if I could find a suitable composition to complement this scene. I knew it would take me a full minute or so to dig out my camera and put it together (the sheer size and weight of the “Beast” camera I’m using right now require me to keep it knocked down while in my backpack - camera body, finder, battery pack, and lens - I can’t carry them all assembled), and also knew the rainbow would not last for long. But I didn’t want to stop and possibly miss possible getting an extraordinary shot - I wanted to hold out for a great one.

And I failed. I ran and ran and ran up and down and across the dunes and - nothing. And the light begin to fade - in fact the entire rainbow started to disappear from the top of the bottom, but the intensity was gone right away. I stopped and stood and stared and wondered what would have been if I’d only arrived an hour sooner. Oh well.

By this time I had started up into the big sand dunes, still with no idea where to hike to, but there was plenty out there before me to climb and explore. By luck of the draw I decided to turn away and hike to the top of a dune way over THERE, hoping to find the scene I’d invented in my mind before. As I got to the top of the dune it wasn’t looking very good.

BUT WAIT, turns out there WAS a sunset going to happen - the clouds parted and brilliant sunshine broke through and lit up the scene. All I had to do was stick my tripod into the sane and put all the parts together. Just then I realized I should have brought two lenses instead of just one - oops. I’ve been pushing the limits of my ailing back packing this camera gear over long and difficult terrain, and so I decided to just take a singe lens with me. And I got a photo with the Beast, but the one I shot with my phone was a lot better! (phone photos go through a LOT of photoshop-like processing by the camera software before you see the image - in most cases a lot more processing that I would ever do - that’s one reason why we all marvel at how great pictures we can take with our phones - it mostly in the processing software!

I wandered around for another hour or two after sunset and shot a few photos but never found the scene I was looking for. No matter - it was quite remarkable just being there in the dark in the middle of all that sand. The 3.5 mile hike back to the parking lot was very nice - not scenic since it was after pitch dark - but just nice and easy. To get back down to the creek I basically just had to follow along the top of mostly one sand dune - for a mile downhill to the creek - I only veered off the crest a dozen or more times.

Once on the creek just turn left and hike upstream, staying as close to the creek as possible - that’s where the firmest footing was. The creek literally changes every second, and is braided over and over and over again across its entire width, which ebbs and flows constantly. Starlight wasn’t quite enough to safety navigate so I turned on a dim headlamp - it case light perhaps 8-10 feet in front of me and that was usually good enough. Now and then though I think the creek tried to lure me out into the middle, and I would start to follow a dry part of land and end up on an island, with the water surging all around. But soon I was back at the van and happy to have experienced yet another great night hike on the dunes.