After leaving Maroon Bells, I stopped and camped at the foot of Mount Evans for a week. Setting my alarm clock for “early”, I would drive up Mount Evans as the sun was just beginning to rise. Every morning was a new and different, but always beautiful sunrise. Here is a sequence of images I made during one of the early morning’s drive up to the summit of Mount Evans.
As I approached Mile Marker 3 (of the 14-mile trip to the summit) the sun began to appear in the low, mountainous sky:
Another mile up the Mount Evans Highway and the sun really began to break free from the low clouds and began spilling it’s brilliant colors over the landscape, as well as reflecting in the overhead clouds:
Staying at this location, I continued shooting until the sunrise colors were beginning to fade from the skies. Note the “starburst” pattern of the early morning sun. If you are a beginning photographer and want to capture this unique pattern in the sun or moon, set your camera’s aperture to f/22 and shoot away (having the sun/moon close to a horizon/landscape usually produces the best results)!
In the foreground of this last image, you can also see a unique plant found along the Mount Evans Highway … the “Wooly Thistle”, which I’ll feature in another post.