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June 16, 2014
I had set the alarm on my phone for 3:00. Of course, it turns out I set it for 3:00 PM, not AM…no matter, I was awake before it was set to go off, anyway. I want to catch the sunrise back at Rocky Mountain National Park. I have a quick bite to eat and then gather together my camera gear and some warm clothes. On US-34, normally flooded with traffic, vehicles are few and far between. Yesterday it took nearly two hours to get through Estes Park from this area; today, less than an hour.
The silhouettes of elk appear on the side of the road, the waning gibbous moon in a clear sky providing just enough light for me to catch a glimpse. At the parking area for the lake, a couple of vehicles are there before me. Other photographers. These two gentlemen are set up in the same area. I greet them and keep walking - I’m not sure the world needs three almost identical photographs today. Finding my own place further along the path, I set up. Some shots of the moon, then for the next hour or so I take a shot at intervals ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. A time lapse of the eastern sky while the sun slowly rises. The wind whips around and I am glad to have a long-sleeved shirt, a hoodie, a windbreaker, and a winter hat and some gloves. Were those other guys wearing shorts? If they’re warm now, I wonder how they’d fare in Arizona in July.
Watching the shots appear on the camera’s screen brings a sense of satisfaction. I’m tempted to go back to the trail I was on the previous day, but there is construction on US-34 and I have to get back before that starts up again. Signs indicating thirty minute waits and one-lane roads are flashing, but I get through in time. Traffic is already a bit heavier once I am past Estes Park. At one point, a school bus. I forget that it is Monday and school is still in session.
Back to the hotel and back to bed for a while. I finally get out of there about 20 minutes before checkout time. Off to Denver for another visit to Tom’s Home Cooking and then a drive to…wherever. I travel along US-40 (Colfax Avenue) and stop at a bookstore. Haha - an Edgar Allen Poe pop-up book. Into Aurora and the road is lined with hotels that likely once were glistening beacons to weary travelers. Now, more likely host to illegal activity. Googie architecture is on display here and there. A great subject for night photography, but I won’t have time. The plane leaves in a couple of hours.
The car returned and my security checked, I board the 737 and take a window seat. Heading past eastern Nebraska I capture a video of a thunderstorm. Later I would find out that it was a rough day for Nebraska, with tornadoes battering the heartland. A few hours later I’m back on the ground in Connecticut. My first thought brings me back to my youth: I want a “do over.”
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