I am having a blast at the Rocky Mountain National Park. I am here little less than a week from 9-23-07 to 9-28-07. The mountains, meadows and wildlife is spectacular. The mountains are steep and rigid. They are a lot different than the Smokies. Also the forest is much more sparse.
Sunday and Monday was cloudy and rainy and many of the mountains were not visible due to low clouds. I still did some photography. I protected my camera from the weather with a 1 gallon ziplock bag with a hole cut at the end for the lens. Get this I was in snow at the higher elevations. Temperatures have been in the 50’s to 30’s in higher elevations. So those of you putting up with 90 degree heat in Knoxville here is a big na na boo boo to you. I got a few photos of elk, rainbow and aspens in their yellow fall color.
Tuesday cleared out and I went to some pull offs on trail ridge rd to photograph Long’s Peak and some other mountains. When the light faded I drove down fall river road and noticed 4 male elk and 2 were fighting. Oh that is not all, there was a nice mountain behind them so I could get a photo of them fighting with a mountain in the background. They were also close enough so I could reach out to them with my 300mm lens.
This morning I got decent photos of Hallett Peak and some other unknown to me mountains. It was real windy so I had to be sure not to get close foreground bushes and trees in my photos because they would blur with wind motion. The wind was so strong at times it nearly blew my tripod over. I had to wait for the wind to calm some before I could take the photo.
Tonight is more mountains along trail ridge road. In the morning is scenics along Sprague lake. That evening I will be hunting for elk. I may introduce them to checkers instead of fighting. Friday morning I am planning to take scenics on dream lake and then on the plane back to Knoxville for 90 degree weather.
