Fall Colors of the Upper Buffalo Wilderness
Between October 27 and November 2, I spent some time at my cabin overlooking the Upper Buffalo Wilderness in Arkansas. Overall, the fall colors were better and more on schedule that the unusually warm fall we saw last year. One of my favorite images was what you see above. Something that I have been getting more into is shooting landscapes with a telephoto zoom lens. This image above was shot at 335mm back on the morning of October 27th. On the afternoon of October 27th, there was quite a bit of high cloud cover. With my background in meteorology, I tend to follow the weather a lot and try to use it to my advantage when it comes to photography. That afternoon, I looked at the satellite image showing some clearing taking place to the west out in Oklahoma. To me, it looked like the timing was going to be right for enough clearing on the western horizon for sunlight to hit the remaining high clouds overhead at sunset. So I headed to Hawksbill Crag to try to capture this. You can see that the was some nice pink light in the clouds.
Hawksbill Crag is likely the most photographed natural feature in Arkansas, but yet I felt like I needed to add to my portfolio of this great spot. You can purchase these photos above on my Autumn in Arkansas page here. November 1st was a gloomy day filled with dense fog all day on the mountain tops. This discourages some people from getting outside, but to me this is a great time to do forest photography. Below are a few examples of usual mundane forest scenes that can change from ordinary to extraordinary with fog.
On the morning of November 2nd, the fog began to lift and the surroundings could once again be seen. Now back to civilization and my hometown of Fayetteville.
Fall Colors of Colorado & West Virginia
My favorite place to be in late September is in the Colorado Rockies, when the aspen trees usually peak in Central and Southern Colorado. The colors seemed a little more subdued this season compared to last season, but that didn't prevent me from finding some great scenes. There were also a couple of times when snow fell on the peaks. Below is a picture of 14,131 foot Capitol Peak near Aspen & Snowmass.
The Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness is a great place to look for fall color. Another favorite place for hiking is the Raggeds Wilderness, west of Crested Butte. I found this colorful scene on a hiking trail looking toward Marcellina Mountain.
Not all of the great scenes have to be found on hiking trails. Some are found on the side of the road. One popular drive for leaf peepers is the Ohio Creek Road south of Ohio Pass in the Gunnison National Forest. It is road filled with colorful understory ferns and beautiful aspen trunks.
Another popular drive in the Crested Butte area is Kebler Pass Road. Here you will find one of the worlds largest aspen groves. Not only is there an awe-inspiring sea of yellow, but with this size comes variety. An area know as “The Dyke” near Kebler Pass, contains some aspen stands, which turn a striking red shade. I'm told that certain soil conditions causes some of these aspen trees to turn more rosy.
Most people just photograph from the side of the road or nearby pullovers while looking up at this particular aspen grove, but I tried to find a more secluded spot and to be more at eye level with this colorful grove by hiking one of the nearby trails.
This October, I went to West Virginia for a different variety of fall foliage. While you won't see quite the soaring mountains and aspen trees in West Virginia, you will find plenty of other beautiful trees, rugged terrain and waterfalls. West Virginia might be the state that most resembles my stomping grounds in the Ozarks of northern and western Arkansas. Both tend to overlooked on national level for scenery, but some of the mountains in West Virginia are a little higher than the mountains of Arkansas. Some of the highest elevations in the state are found near a place called Bear Rocks, where you will find views and colorful shrubs. The red shrubs in the bottom of the picture (below left) are blueberry bushes that turn crimson in early October.
One great place in West Virginia to visit is Blackwater Falls State Park. In addition to waterfalls, you will also find nice viewpoints, such as Lindy Point (above right) and the Pendleton Overlook (below).
Of course, visiting Blackwater Falls is a must see when in the area.
My favorite backcountry area was in the Dolly Sods Wilderness. The color was peaking about the same time that the remnants of Hurricane Nate had just brought some soaking rains to West Virginia. With the recent runoff, my hike along Red Creek was well timed.
A trip to West Virginia would not be complete without visiting the most photographed spot in West Virginia, Babcock Mill at Babcock Mill State Park.
However, I find more pleasure in finding and photographing spots that aren't as iconic and well known, such as this lone shapely bare tree next to a calm pond in the fog at Canaan Valley State Park.
We are heading into the heart of fall foliage season in the Ozarks of Arkansas as it seems to be on target for peaking during the usual time of late October and early November. That will be the subject of my next blog post. The Bears Of Katmai National Park
In September, I visited Katmai National Park in southern Alaska to view and photograph brown bears. Katmai is one of the 10 least visited national parks. You can not drive to Katmai. The only way to get there is by float plane, such as one seen below.
I joined Russ Nordstrand (his website is backcountryjourneys.com) and the rest of our photography participants in King Salmon, which is the nearest town that we flew in from. We camped 3 nights at the Brooks Camp...inside an electric fence to help keep these wondering bears out. The bears here are known as brown bears. All grizzly bears are brown bears, but not all brown bears are grizzly bears. Grizzly bears and brown bears are the same species (Ursus arctos), but grizzly bears are considered to be a separate subspecies. Even though grizzlies are considered to be a subspecies of brown bear, the difference between a grizzly bear and a brown bear is fairly arbitrary. In North America, brown bears are generally considered to be those of the species that have access to coastal food resources like salmon. Grizzly bears live further inland and typically do not have access to marine-derived food resources. Because of the abundance of salmon here, this is why they are among some of the largest brown bears in the world. Besides habitat and diet, there are physical differences between brown and grizzly bears. Large male brown bears in Katmai can routinely weigh over 1,000 pounds while feasting in the fall. In contrast, grizzly bears in a place like Yellowstone or Glacier National Park weigh far less on average. There have been no documented cases of grizzly bears weighing over 900 pounds in Yellowstone. These are among some of largest brown bears in the world. Only the Kodiak subspecies of the brown bears and polar bears are larger.
Brooks Falls is one of the best places in the world to watch brown bears because of the salmon that collect here. July and September are by far the best months for viewing these bears in the Brooks Falls area. In the fall, Coho and Sockeye Salmon heavily populate the area below Brooks Falls during spawning season while some of these salmon attempt to jump to get above Brooks Falls.
One method to catching the salmon is to try to grab one from the top of the falls.
Another method is to hang out at the bottom of the falls and wait for one to swim up next to the bears, such as this time. Here is one video that I captured using that method:
It should be noted that most of these images were taken from viewing platforms with gates that prevent the bears from posing a danger to humans. Others were captured while being at least 50 yards away using a telephoto lens. Sometimes, you can view bears in their lighter, more playful moments.
You can check out the webcam at Brooks Falls here, which is live during daylight hours. Come November, the bears will be in more in hibernation mode, but you still should be able to see some bears at the falls for a few more weeks. While the brown bears are the star at Katmai, the scenery is pretty nice, too. Below are couple landscape shots close to sunset along the shores of Naknek Lake.
Visiting the Canadian Rockies
I recently spent 3 weeks in western Canada, much of it in the Canadian Rockies, exploring some of the best places between Calgary and Vancouver. This included the iconic places in Banff, Jasper, Yoho & Waterton Lakes National Parks. There were significantly more people in these parks than I recall on my last trip here in 1994. As a part of Canada's 150th birthday this year, admission into the parks was free and I imagine this was the busiest year that the Canadian national parks have ever seen. Many of the best places are right on the road or with a short walk from the parking lot. However, I also did a few longer hikes...like this one up to the top of Sentinel Pass, which is the highest maintained trail in Banff National Park.
As you can see behind me, there were some times when smoke was in the air from wildfires in British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest. While the visibility was not quite always picture perfect, it did give the landscape a mystical feel at times. But there was also some clear air days where you could see unobstructed views for miles, like this view of Peyto Lake.
The water has this unearthly color because of the floating reflective particles of glacier silt, or very small particles of sediment, that are suspended in the water. Below are some more good examples at Lake Louise, Emerald Lake and Maligne Lake. Each of these lakes sits just below melting glaciers to give the water this color.
Lake Louise has a lot of visitors and tourists. Because of this, it is the most photographed place in Canada. Moraine Lake (pictured below) is probably number 2. I personally think Moraine Lake is more photogenic. It used to be on the face of a 20 Canadian dollar bill and I probably see more pictures from more photographers on Instagram from Moraine Lake than any other place in Canada. The lake was recently featured on the cover of National Geographic Traveler as one of the "Must See Places for 2017".
I was treated to a lot of calm mornings with no wind. This made for great reflections of the trees and mountains in the lakes. Below is a pair of pictures from Two Jack Lake with Mount Rundle near Banff.
Although many of the days were sunny and warm, there were some signs of summer transitioning to fall in a few places. Some patchy color was beginning to show up, such as this red shrubbery here just below Athabasca Glacier, as well as some small yellow trees at Waterton Lakes National Park.
I also visited a few lesser known national parks and provincial parks. One of my favorite views looking down was from atop Mount Revelstoke National Park in British Columbia (left). Mount Robson (right), at 12,972 feet above sea level, is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies and the highlight of Mount Robson Provincial Park.
Another great provincial park in British Columbia is Wells Gray, which is known for its large waterfalls. On the left is Helmcken Falls and on the right is the base of Dawson Falls.
Wells Gray Provincial Park is also a good place to view spawning salmon trying to swim upstream. Only the strongest fish can to make the successful jump up the heavy rapids and strong currents of Bailey's Chute in the Clearwater River.
Sometimes you will see bears at these large waterfalls with spawning salmon. I didn't see any bears there, but I did see up to 7 black bears in one day at Waterton Lakes National Park! Most of these were viewed from the from the side of the road, but one was while on a hiking trail.
I will probably see more bears and salmon when I make a trip to Katmai National Park on the coast of Alaska later this month. Until then, here are a few more of my favorite pictures from Canada.
My Favorite Colorado Landscape Photos This SummerColorado is probably my favorite place to visit, so that is why I chose to spend nearly 6 weeks there this summer. The visit began at the Music Meadows Ranch June when I visited the Music Meadows Ranch near Westcliffe. You can read more about that visit here. Early June is an excellent time because the aspen trees leaf out with their fresh, bright green leaves and I managed to capture this image of fog burning off near the base of this grove of aspen trees in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.
What might be my most unique image of the summer was back in June atop a mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. My goal was to hike to the top of the mountain by the time the moon set between Longs Peak and Mount Meeker. You can read more about the story behind that photograph here.
My favorite hike along a river was along the Cache La Poudre River west of Fort Collins. The name of the river translates to "hiding of the powder" in French, which refers to an incident in the 1820s when French fur trappers, caught by a snowstorm, were forced to bury part of their gunpowder along the banks of the river. It is the only federally designated Wild & Scenic River that flows in Colorado, with 30 miles of its course being deemed as "wild". Wild rivers are the most remote and undeveloped, while recreational rivers often have many access points, roads, railroads, and bridges. The best hike to get that feeling of wilderness along the river is along the Big South Trail. Here I was able to create a panorama of the raging river.
Another of my favorite hikes was in Rocky Mountain National Park. On a morning in early July, I walked the trail leading to Chasm Lake near the base of 14,259 foot tall Longs Peak. Once again, it was another walk uphill in the dark to get to these scenic places above the tree-line. The sunrise here that time of the year is 5:38am! I was on my way to get to Chasm Lake for first light. There was one problem...the trail crossed a steep snowbank. You can see a faint line going through the snow in the upper right corner of the picture below. That is the trail I would have had to go across to make it any farther.
I didn't have any crampons or spikes on my boots to trek across the snow and it was a long slide down the icy slope if I did slip. I decided not to take the chance of risking injury and opted to explore my surroundings beneath the trail. After doing minor scrambling down some boulders, I discovered a nice patch of columbines within viewing distance of the appropriately named Columbine Falls. Although my original intention was to make it beyond the waterfall, it made for a nice consolation prize. In fact, this may have been a more photogenic spot had I continued to the lake. Sometimes serendipity can work out! Looking up the rugged face of Longs Peak from down here was a humbling experience for me.
One nice spot to hike to in Rocky Mountain National Park is Sandbeach Lake. My favorite thing about this photo was the log that was floating in the still water. Another great lake in the park is Dream Lake, which has been called the most photographed lake in Colorado that can only be reached by foot. The steep face of Hallett Peak makes nice for a backdrop to this scenic lake. The only lake that probably gets photographed more often is Maroon Lake and its view of the Maroon Bells, which can be reached by road.
I often try to make it to above treeline for sunrise, like this scene looking east from the Front Range of the Rockies west of Boulder. There is something magical about watching it fade from night to day at a place like this.
The treeline is usually between 11,000 and 12,000 feet above sea level in Colorado. Once you get to about 12,000 feet, the open tundra spreads out before you. The alpine buttercup is a common tundra flower in Colorado. Although short and small, they can put a nice display of yellow and other colors of wildflowers are plentiful as well.
I also saw an assortment of wildlife, including mountain goats, elk and moose. On my way up from Dream Lake to Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, I saw a young elk, as well as a young moose at Kenosha Pass.
I will be returning to Colorado for its fall color that peaks in late September. My next blog post will be from the Canadian Rockies. Stay tuned for that coming up in early September. |
