Colorado landscapes: Maroon Lake - after the rain

 

Back to the Colorado stories. I read somewhere that Maroon Bells are the most photographed mountains in the US. I have no idea if this is true or not, but they are definitely worth a look or two, even if the sky is not blue and the fall colors of the leaves just start turning.

As you probably have figured out I’m not so much a fan of the “postcard views” and rather make photos that use subtle light and clouds to tell a story. The purists under the landscape photographers may also not like that the water of Maroon Lake has some ripples but for me this is part of the story telling. Everybody who has been more than a couple times in alpine mountains knows by looking at this photo that there is some dynamic up in the sky, that the clouds moved fast, and that some wind played a role in this game. Yep, the editor who has to select the next postcard for print will refuse this photo, but have you seen many postcards that tell stories beyond a great vista? …. ;-)

Colorado landscapes: A tipi in Ashcroft

 

Our next destination in Colorado was the area around Aspen. We camped in the valley below the famous Maroon Bells but I will talk about this later. Our first day was a rainy one and we made the whole morning a “maintenance day”, means taking a hot shower in Aspen and having a lovely restaurant lunch. The rain stopped and we drove up Castle Creek Valley, south of Aspen, to the remains of the ghost town Ashcroft. This old mining town started in 1880 but had only a short boom time. We explored the last wooden buildings of Ashcroft with our cameras but it wasn’t before we went back to the car that we saw this picturesque setting. I love how the elements come together, the steep slope of the mountain, the white stems of the aspen with their color changing leaves, the bushes in the foreground that surround the creek, and of course the tipi as an eye catcher…