Rocky Mountain Elk

Ron Niebrugge Colorado, Photos, Rocky Mountain N. P., Travel 15 Comments

Bull Elk at sunset, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Bull Elk at sunset, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

We finally made it into Rocky Mountain National Park last night – this place is great!  We arrived just in time to enjoy this wonderful sunset.  I had no idea there is so much elk activity here – this is as good as Jasper/Banff or Yellowstone, two areas I love.  My time spent with elk in those National Parks really helped me anticipate this guys movement so that I could be in the right spot in case there was a sunset – it sure all came together!  I also have some sunset photos with the whole harem of elk.

It is going to be nice to be in one place for a week or so.  We have only driven the first few miles of the Park road – I’m really looking forward to driving and hiking more of the park.

This was captured with my 24-105 at 58mm along with a 3 stop hard edged graduated neutral density filter.

Here are more Colorado photos.

Summit Lake, Mount Evans, Colorado

Ron Niebrugge Ask Ron, Colorado, Photos, Travel 14 Comments

Summit Lake, Mount Evans, Colorado.

Summit Lake, Mount Evans, Colorado.

This lake sits at 12,830 feet – and there is a road to it!  In fact, the road continues to the top of Mount Evans in the distance at 14,264 making it the highest paved road in North America.  Unfortunately it is closed beyond Summit Lake after the Labor Day weekend.
When I was hiking around, the elevation really wasn’t noticeable – but at one point I realized my battery was going to die, so I ran back to the truck for another one, and wow – that air is thin!
My super model slept in this morning, so you get stuck with a rare photo of me today!

Pika

Ron Niebrugge Colorado, Photos, Travel 9 Comments

Pika, Mount Evans, Colorado.

Pika, Mount Evans, Colorado.

Finally able to spend some time outdoors after a long week of travel, and it felt good!  The colors in the high country are beginning to turn, I think our timing is good – I’m very excited about the upcoming weeks.  Colorado is a beautiful state!

Stormy weather made it hard to find mountain goats on Mt Evens, so I spent some time photographing these cute little guys!  I have seen them on numerous occasions in Denali, but not at the concentrations as I saw on Mt Evans.

Here are more Colorado photos.

Hitting the Road

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Photos, Travel 20 Comments

Sunrise on Mt. Marathon last month, Seward, Alaska.

Sunrise on Mt. Marathon last month, Seward, Alaska. If you look close, you can see the Seward Highway way down in the valley as it comes into town.

I gotta admit, it is really hard to leave Alaska this time of year.  Sure, it is the wettest time of year, but a beautiful Fall day in Seward can be really amazing.  In fact, last year we ended up delaying our fall trip because we couldn’t pull ourselves away from here.  But, I have always wanted to visit and photograph Colorado, and September is a wonderful month in the Rockies.  If we waited until after the fall colors in Alaska, we would miss them in Colorado.

So tomorrow we pack, Saturday drive to Anchorage, Sunday fly to Southern California where we spend a couple of days getting our trailer ready, then make the three day drive to Estes Park.  I say all that so that I have a built in excuse in case I’m unable to post to the blog next week.  Once we are down there and situated, I will resume my regular posts, hopefully with photos of a new region (for me) and exciting adventures!  Well, hopefully not too exciting.

What we typically do on these long trips is find a campground with wifi – this way we can set up our mobile office so that we can maintain the office while I photograph the surrounding area.

Our plan right now is to stay for two weeks in Estes Park and photograph Rocky Mountain National Park.  Then, down to Gunnison for two or three weeks of chasing the fall colors in the mountains.  Once the colors fade, we are going back to Moab – a place we really enjoyed last fall.  This year we were able to snag back country reservations for a couple of nights  along the White Rim Trail – that should be fun.  Those are hard to get, we had to apply months ago.

After that, our trip is less planned.  As we head West we will spend a few nights in the Vegas area before hitting the Southern California desert for a week or two.  When we return to Alaska in mid November, fall will be long over.

So that is the plan for now – sometimes we follow the plan almost exactly, other times we completely change our minds depending on what we find on the road.    So stay tuned to the photo blog for future posts!

Mountain View

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Kenai Fjords, Photos, Travel 6 Comments

View from the to of the Harding Icefield Trail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

View from the to of the Harding Icefield Trail, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

This is Janine enjoying the sunset view from our backpacking trip last month into Kenai Fjords National Park.

I had to go to great lengths to get into a high enough position so that her head didn’t merge into the distant mountains, I wanted to make sure she was positioned so that her background would against the fog.

2010 Alaska Wildlands Calendar

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Chugach, Photos, Shameless Self Promotion, Travel 14 Comments

2010 Alaska Wildlands Calendar

2010 Alaska Wildlands Calendar

I have tried to keep the shameless self promotion to a minimum, but I have always kinda liked this photo of Harriman Glacier in the Chugach National Forest, so I was excited to have it selected for the cover of next years calendar.

I believe these are available at most National Park visitor centers in Alaska.  Here are some more Chugach National Forest photos.