|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is a view of Boulder Colorado from the east of the city looking west towards the mountains. You can see the Flatirons, the University of Colorado buildings, and much of the downtown. On the right you will see US 36, which is the major highway that leads into the city. It has been a particularly rainy spring and summer in Colorado, so the hills are much greener than they typically are at this time of year. This image was assembled from a thousand pictures taken with a Canon T1i, 300mm lens w/ image stabilizer, and Epic 100 and stitched with the Gigapan stitching software. Photoshop was used for some minor post processing to change the exposure and to manually fix motion artifacts in the cars by copying in elements of the saved projected images files created by the Gigapan stitching software. The overall picture was fairly uniform lighting at this type of day, so I did not go with an HDR exposure (also due to the number of pictures that would have required). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spectacular Spring day with lots of backcountry skiers in Aspen highcountry out dodging the avalanches |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A view from Point Lookout. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is ground Zero for the city of Denver |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Peak on the left of the photo is Hesperus Peak. It was named Hesperus not because of the of the town of Hesperus but was so named after the poem The Wreck of the Hesperus. It is the Northeast point of the Navajo four quadrants that enclose their world. It is also the highest peak in the La Plata Mountains.
The basin in between Hesperus and the peak to the right is Owen's Basin. It was named after a geologic miner by the name of Harry Owens. He worked for George Andrew Jackson for whom the ridge to the very right of the photo is named. Jackson killed one of his miner's with a double-barreled shotgun in September 1894 and out of that event I have just completed a book titled Death at Golconda. Golcanda was where Jackson had his camp-where the North and the South Forks of the West Mancos meet. This Photo was taken about a mile from where Golconda was located. During the 1880s and early 1890s, the La Platas were believed to contain fantastic riches -gold in great quantities. Those stories brought Jackson from Ouray in 1891 on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad to try his hand at uncovering some of those riches. He found enough placer and sluice gold to keep his camp going for three years but the he went for big money which seems to have been his calling card years before in Denver and around Ouray. His calling card was to put the placer and sluice gold he recovered in his mine ore samples. It was called salting your ore and when an employee confronted him about it death became a result. When I was 14 my father took me to the remains of Golconda and to the placer location which was large enough to have been named Jackson City. He was a prospector at heart and even though he must have realized he would he would never find enough gold to even pay for the trip into the mountains he persisted year after year. I have climbed Hesperus Peak a number of times and for a thrill of a lifetime you need to climb it. I have always climbed from the west except for one time up the south face. It was early spring and as I climbed up into the gorge rocks began coming down as melting took place that day. Even now it is still a scary memory . So I suggest you go up to Sharks Tooth trail and hike up the talus on the northeast side of Hesperus. It is the shortest and easiest way to climb the peak. The view from the top is stupendous and is like taking a jeep ride into the mountains above Ouray which we did this past weekend. Sorry, I kinda got carried away. Darrel Ellis |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aspen Highlands Maroon Bowl on Closing Day, 2009. Ed Armstrong Speed-Fly's Maroon Bowl. Speed-Flying is like paragliding, but the kite is much smaller and therefore the speed is much higher. You use skiis to get enough speed for takeoff. Its a pretty radical and exciting sport only practiced by a few.
Maroon Bowl is on the backside of the Fantastic Highlands Bowl at Aspen Highlands Ski Resort. It is in the backcountry and has significant risks including a river to cross at the bottom, but the turns are sweet. You can view many more Colorado Gigapans by me here: http://share.gigapan.org/viewProfile.php?userid=414 Please send your teenagers on an excellent summer education adventure teaching sailing, scuba diving, and marine biology in the British Virgin Islands - http://www.odysseyexpeditions.com |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A view of Durango Colorado From A Top Smelter Mountain |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is America's highest paved automobile road. Drive from 8,700 feet at Idaho Spring where you turn of Interstate 70 to 14,240 feet to the summit, and you will pass through 3 life zones, passing ancient trees, lakes and forest to the land above timberline. It can be 90 degrees in Denver and 40 degrees at the top of Mount Evans. Mountain Goats and Bighorn Sheep will greet you as you climb to the top of the world.
All 14 miles of the road from the entrance station to the Mount Evans summit parking area (14,130) are paved. From there, you can hike the last 130 feet (about 1/4 mile walk) to the top at 14,264 feet. After you have made this climb, you can tell all your friends: "I climbed a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado on my vacation!" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A view of Boulder, CO and the surrounding area from Mount Sanitas |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This monument was set aside to preserve and protect the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States. Paleo-Indian inhabitation of the region extends back at least 10,000 years. As of 2005 over 6000 individual archaeological sites have been identified within the monument , the largest being Sand Canyon Pueblo which contains at least 420 rooms 90 kivas and 14 towers. |