T
he Colorado Rocky Mountains are one of the easiest places in the world to experience the wonders of high altitude alpine environments. Colorado has road accessible destinations in excess of 14,000 feet (the highest paved road in North America) allowing us to pass through multiple “life zones” as we ascend from the Front Range. This tour offers two destination options depending on your specific interests (and the time of year). You can choose to visit Mount Evans or take a ride through Guanella Pass. Both options provide amazing photographic opportunities including spectacular views, alpine meadows, high altitude lakes, wildlife and flowers. To learn the specific opportunities each destination provides, please use these links (Mount Evans | Guanella Pass) or call and ask directly.
You will likely never see so many grand vistas and amazing views as you will find on this photography tour. Views can exceed 80 miles from the top of Mount Evans on a clear day. Meadows surrounded by 13-14,000 foot peaks will have you slack jawed and feeling very small. It’s a photographic bonanza for the enthusiastic landscape photographer.
The high country alpine tundra is rich with wildlife despite the harsh environment and provides us with a good opportunity to capture some beautiful creatures with our photography. Common wildlife sightings include Elk, Big Horn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Marmots, Pikas, Eagles and Foxes.
The Rockies blossom with color during spring time as the wildflowers make their way onto the scene. Due to the high altitude temperatures, the alpine environment allows us to capture blossoms well into late summer, long after the flowers have gone from the Front Range below. Alpine flowers tend to be very small and delicate, generally requiring a macro lens or large telephoto to obtain your best photographs. Examples of flowers you can expect to photograph include: Rocky mountain columbine, Bluebells, Fairy Slippers, Monkshood, Wild Strawberry, Snow Buttercup and more.
Both photo tour destinations will pass by a number of mountain lakes and streams. The lakes can be crystal clear mirrors of still water from which you can capture the reflections of surrounding mountains. The streams on the other hand, can provide exciting opportunities to photograph long exposures of water as it cascades down large boulder filled canyons or through wetland meadows.
