Miracles Do Happen

My brother finally came out to visit me here in Colorado Springs. This is my third time living out here. I do believe he had a good time though since he is planning on coming out here again next summer. We went and did a lot of the tourist sites around the area. Here's a visual guide to what all we hit.

This is in the middle of town at Palmer Park. We took my dog Chester to run around some and then stopped at the overlook to get a good view of the city.



The next place we hit was the Broadmoor. It's in the foothills on the West side of town. A really nice old hotel. Takes a few buck if you want a room.












This is one of the lights in the hallways. I'm glad no one came along while we were taking these. They would have thought we were crazy lying on the floor to get this shot.



Here's me working my camera.



And here's the shot I got.





Mark with his pony!



This is a series of sculptors sitting in someones front yard. I actually met him a while back before he passed away. These things are huge and made out of steel. They move and spin when the wind is blowing. If you want to see them they are near the entrance to Seven Falls.



After the sculptors we headed up to Helen Hunt Falls next which is located in North Cheyenne Canyon Park. You can see it was a little chilly up there.





This was on our way up Pikes Peak. We took the highway up. They had trucks hauling up gravel for road maintenance. You don't want to get in the way of one of these while they are coming down. You'd think they were in the road race they hold up there each year.



The roads near the top are steep and exposed. If you have a fear of heights you probably won't enjoy this section too much!





At the top.







It's almost like another world up here.



If you want to go up the mountain there are two other ways besides driving. One is the Cog Railway.



The other way is on foot. I've done this trail a few times and it isn't too bad. Took me about 8 hours to get to the top taking my time and stopping at the cabin at Barr Camp. Unless you want to spend all day hiking it's best to arrange for someone to pick you up at the top or arrange for passage down on the train, if they have room. I've hiked down the mountain also but that's hard on the knees!

Downtown Colorado Springs

Here's a picture from the second hike I went on yesterday. Since Chester couldn't go on the first one, no dogs allowed, I went on two hikes yesterday. This second one was up on Section 16 off of Lower Gold Camp road. Took this with my 100mm macro lens and used Photoshop to blur the top and bottom of the picture to give it a toy model look. Fun stuff. You'll want to click on the picture to get a bigger view of it.

I Love Weekends

The weather was beautiful today so I went for another walk in Fountain Creek Park. I'm sure you can guess by now that it isn't too far from my house. Maybe a ten minute drive tops. Didn't make it out there as early as I wanted to but the light was still nice. With the wedding season basically over it's nice to know I'll have my weekends free to goof off now! Time to do some photography just for me. Here's some sights along the way today. Hope you enjoy them.

Went for a walk with the 100mm Macro Today

Took a walk today after work down at Fountain Creek Park in the Nature Conservancy area that they have. No dogs so Chester had to sit this one out. Just as well since he's a royal pain when I'm trying to shoot. He tends to trample anything I point the camera at. Here are a few along the way today. Still some color here but it won't last too much longer. While a 100mm macro isn't the lens of choice to do landscape shots it really is a sharp lens with nice color and contrast so I wanted to give it a try. If you click on a picture it opens up larger. Enjoy.

Carving the Crags

Went for a hike today along with my dog Chester up on the Crags. This is a popular hiking spot along Hwy 67 headed out towards Cripple Creek. Last time I was up there was about 18 years ago I believe. My life sure has changed a lot since then, but who's hasn't? I remember from the last time I was up there all the carving on the Aspens. I didn't like it then and still don't now. I understand why people do it but I don't think they realize just what they are doing to the Aspens up there. Seems their undying love is killing the trees. Here are a few shots from the Aspens that you go through towards the beginning of the trail.










You can see from this last picture how the bark is splitting off the tree from where it's been carved. People really need to quit damaging these trees.

Here's a last look up at these beautiful trees. No leaves left this time of year but they still have a cool look to them.



Well, off my soap box and on with the hike. Heading on down the trail you get some nice views as you go. A good part of the trail follows along a meandering mountain stream which still has running water this time of the year. I'm not sure if it runs all year or not. Didn't actually get a picture of the stream this time but Chester had a good time running around in it. Here are some sights along the stream though.







As you go down the trail this is a large landmark that guides you along your way.



Once you get to the top of the Crags you get a nice 360 degree view around you. You are also looking down at some of the reservoirs. It was really hazy today though. I'm not sure if it was from the fires off in California or just normal haze. I did take a couple of shots from the top but it was hard to get anything decent. While we were up there we also took a lunch break. Chester really chowed down on his food. Here's a shot of his face buried in his hiking bowl.



And last but not least here are a few shots from the top of the Crags. Didn't take very many while I was up there since the haze was so bad but I did get a few. Enjoy, I did.







I think this last one is the Manitou Reservoir if I was reading my map correctly. I use the Pikes Peak Atlas from Ormes and Houdek if you're curious. Love that map. It's taken me on a lot of trails in this area. Well, that's if for now until next time.

Winter is Here in Colorado Springs

Well, it seems winter is coming to Colorado Springs. It's been a cold and snowy day. Didn't have much to do and really didn't feel like being cold so I stuck close to the house most of the day. I did take a few shots though. It's a rare day I don't do something with my cameras. Mainly, I worked on lighting ratios with multiple flashes and my light meter. Got a pretty good handle on it.

The snow on my side of town didn't stick around very long since it wasn't cold enough. I did go out and get a few shots of it melting in the bushes around the house. Here's one that I especially like. The full size is pretty large. I made it 1280x1024 if you would like to use it as a wallpaper.



Towards the end of the day I could tell Chester was bored out of his head so I relented and got dressed and took him out to the 21st Street Dog Park. Did you know it's one of the top 10 dog parks in the country? Of course a camera came with! Here is a view from the back of the park looking towards the Front Range. This side of town is a little higher being more in the foothills so their snow was sticking around. Hope you enjoy this shot. It was a real pretty evening.




As you can see it was a little cool today. We should still have a little warm weather left but it's not long before Old Man Winter settles in for the duration here. Hope wherever you are it's warm.

Fall in Colorado

It's hard to beat the weather we have in the Fall out here in Colorado. Went up in the mountains with a group of photographers the other day. Mike had a pass that got us up Pikes Peak for free! I figured we would be up there for a few hours taking pictures. 12 hours later I finally got home. It's hard to make progress on a trail when it's a bunch of photographers all taking pictures. We did get some nice pictures though. Thought I'd share a few with you.