This is the full trip through Rocky Mountain National Park. From sunrise at Rainbow Curve Overlook to sunset at Moraine Park. It covers the park from top to bottom and I love every minute of it.
Dennis
RAINBOW CURVE LENS FLARE
This is another photo from Rainbow Curve. I’m usually not a huge fan of lens flares and I never try to get them on purpose but there is something to the way flares look like pulses going across the valley in waves that I really liked.
Dennis
People and Elk dot the mountain side
LARGE BUT TINY
The scale of these mountains is so large that it messes with your perception of distance. This ridge line is off to the right of the Alpine Visitors Center. There’s a trail that leads to the top.
I have no idea how far away I was from this other mountain but the tiny dots to the right along the trail are people hiking and the tiny brown dots to the left are elk. A very large animal made very small by the scale of the mountain.
Dennis
Top Of The World
TOP OF THE WORLD
The hike to this spot from the Alpine Visitor Center isn’t long but man did the elevation kick my butt. It was worth it though. You really do feel like you are on top of the world. It’s not the highest point in the area but it feels like you can see forever.
Dennis
Trail Ridge Road
TRAIL RIDGE ROAD
This was such an incredible July day. A beautiful blue sky, dotted with puffy white clouds. And of course, snow on the ground in the summer. Still can’t get over that.
The most incredible thing about this photo though, is that I took it from a parking lot just feet away from Trail Ridge Road.
Dennis
BREAKING THROUGH
The sun breaking the horizon is probably my favorite photo. I get to shoot it a lot because Florida is so flat. In the mountains though, you don’t get to see the true horizon. The mountain peaks make their own horizon, so I wasn’t sure if the sun breaking the mountain tops would work.
It’s not as impressive because of a lot of boring details that I won’t get into, but I still liked this photo of the sun coming over this peak and sneaking in between the layers of clouds.
Dennis
Rocky Mountain Silhouette
Rocky Mountain Silhouette
The clouds weren’t thick enough for a huge sunrise. So I focused on smaller sections of the sunrise as the orange glow behind the mountains grew stronger and stronger.
Because I shoot so many sunrises and sunsets, I end up shooting a lot of silhouettes. Yet, I’m not a huge fan of them. I try to avoid them as much as possible. But there was something about the burning orange glow behind the pitch black mountain outline that made for a great photo.
Dennis
Layers of color at Rainbow Curve
RAINBOW CURVE
Rainbow curve is up around 8000 feet of elevation in Rocky Mountain National Park so this was a crisp July morning.
I got there right as color started to break the horizon. It went from pitch black to beautiful layers of intense orange slowly fading into deeper and deeper blue.
Dennis
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SUNSET TIME-LAPSE
This entire time-lapse was shot in Moraine Park, within Rocky Mountain National Park. The two hours I spent there showed me a wide range of Rockies weather. It started out as a beautiful sunny day, a storm rolled through, the sun came back out with a chill in the air, and finally, night slowly overtook day.
I enjoyed every minute of it. Even while I was hiding in my car from the storm.
Dennis
Sun reflecting on clouds after a storm rolled through
POST STORM GLOW
I really like this spot along the The Big Thompson River. The river snakes its way through the middle of the valley leading to some very cool twists and turns.
As I was sitting along the river, a storm rolled through. It didn’t last long, and as it moved through the sky exploded with this amazing orange/yellow color on the clouds. The reflection in the rushing water added to the incredible scene.
Dennis