Trip Report – Colorado Fall Color 2016 Part 1

Last fall I had the opportunity to attend two photo charters in Colorado, so I extended the trip to allow time to visit a couple of national parks.  First up was Mesa Verde National Park. Created on June, 29th, 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt, Mesa Verde National Park was the first of it’s kind. All prior National Parks were created to preserve nature. Mesa Verde was established to preserve the works of man.

I only had one afternoon to visit Mesa Verde this time, but that was more than enough time to capture the two images I had in mind. First was sunset at Square Tower House:

Square Tower House Sunset

Second was the Milky Way over Park Point:

As a bonus I got a post sunset shot of the old Knife Edge Road that served as the entrance to the park for many years.  The went around the rock formation to the left in the image below, literally only one car width wide.  Thankfully they’ve built a wider road to replace it:

After finishing with the milky way shots, I headed north to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  More on that in Part 2.

Through The Lens 66 – Square Tower House

Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park is the tallest cliff dwelling in the park. It also is a great location to shoot at sunset.  Since the last time I visited was a cloudy day, I made a point to stop at Mesa Verde on my way to Black Canyon of the Gunnison on a trip last fall.  I’ll post the first part of the trip report on Tuesday.