Colorado Camp 9,033' remote cam September 30 - fall is in full swing here in the high country - time for one last nap and then I'll head back to Arkansas - nighttime in New Mexico, then back home to a real bed tomorrow night - yippie!(My lovely bride has been in the central Colorado area this past week painting with her great friend from Canada, Heather. Pam is heading home today as well, and we'll meet up tomorrow - double YIPPIE!)

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09/02/23 A warmish 52 at dawn - but oh my the "dawn" light and color lasted for about 30 minutes - long enough for the pups and I to make our usual morning poop loop (they pooped, not me). Seemed like the color, shapes, and direction of the clouds were constantly changing. I LOVE silhouetted trees against this sort of sky, so it was quite a happy hike for me today (as always at 9,000'!).

Yesterday was what the professionals call the beginning of "Meteorological Autumn" - Sept/Oct/Nov, with the rest of the seasons following suit - Dec/Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr/May, and Jun/Jul/Aug. I AGREE with this thinking, although will still also salute the autumnal equinox that will happen on September 22nd.

09/04/23 Momma mule deer with twins greeted us this morning on our return from the high country - spent the night above Wolf Creek Pass taking star pictures at 11,750' - not sure if any of those turned out or not but it was GLORIOUS way up there with extremey clear skies and a ga-sillion STARS everywhere! We did a quick hike around at 5am before we left - in the moonlight - hiking in moonlight is always a special treat! After we visited with the three deer back at camp we took a short hike just after sunrise and it appears to be a beautiful start to a new week.

09/05/23 Here's a photo yesterday evening of the Conintenital Divide from the same hilltop I was on the night before. And a photo of where I parked to try and escape a HUGE windstorm that raged on for hours. I weighted my camera tripod down with about 60 pounds of weights (water bottles in my backpack) to help keep the camera still during long exposures of stars I was trying to take (the tripod is hidden between the camper van and the tower building - less wind, or not). The actual temp by the time I left was in the upper 30's, no doubt the wind chill was a lot colder - good thing I remembered to pack my down jacket when I left Arkansas in the 100-degree heat!

09/06/23 Another late night on top of a WINDY AND COLD mountain at 11,750' - this tower with the Milky Way photo (above)was not actually leaning - that's just wide-angle lens distortion - the Milky Way appears about right, and was SPECTACULAR as expected. And we have LOTS AND LOTS OF WILD ROSE TIPS all around camp right now - each one was a beautiful, happy flower in July, now morphed into deer food.

09/07/23 I guess it was FIRE DAY yesterday. Really high afternoon winds grabbed a neighbor's smoldering burn pile and the fire TOOK OFF towards our property (they are a really nice retired couple from Czechoslovakia and now Florida). The local volunteer fire department did what they do and put three trucks and lots of manpower on the fire within literally about 20 minutes after they got the call, and they got the fire put out just as it started to climb up onto our "granite volcano plug" so we only had minor burns on our land. The much larger Quartz Ridge wo;dfire up on the Conintenital Divide where I've been spending my nights taking star photos, got up and angry yesterday with the high winds and sent thick smoke for many miles. This was just out of the view of my nighttime photos - as was another wildfire that was burning over my shoulder to the northwest of me. Been a pretty calm fire season so far here this summer, but with weeks like this being so dry and such high winds I expect we'll have more to come - just hope our neighbors keep their fires indoors for a while, haha.

My lovely bride arrives later today - YEA!

09/14/23 Cloudy and cool as we head out today on a scouting mission to survey possible painting locations for my lovely bride and her Canadian friend, Heather, during their week together at the peak of fall color later this month. Twin Lakes, Independence Pass, Leadville, Arkansas River headwaters area, and a few stops up and over Fremont Pass (past Mt. Arkansas!) towards Frisco. Might be some snow on the mountain peaks.

Colorado Camp 9,033' remote cam September 15 - the pups keep busy looking for wildlife. How many deer do you see?

(five in the photo and one more just off view)

09/17/23 A cowboy rode through our meadow yesterday checking on his 80 cows/steers/bulls that are roaming the ranch. Fall color is beginning to creep in and a few individual aspen trees have already popped.

09/16/23 We got some SNOW on the higher peaks - this is Mesa Mountain that we can see from camp - 12,963'.

09/19/23 We had a fierce round of explosive thunderstorms last evening - all four of us huddled inside the camper van with fingers and toes crossed. We all survived and I don't think any of our electrical equipment got fried (BRIGHT lightning bolts were hitting within our neighborhood frequently but we had everything unplugged or running on battery power). I hiked around late night after it had all passed and those black clouds gave way to an incredible clear sky (no pictures though - I was a bit concerned about mountain lions so went to bed early). BUT MY OH MY when I was up at 5am this morning those skies were EPIC - stars so close it felt like I could reach out and touch them - in fact I swear I could see some of the colors of nebula with my own eyes (usually takes long exposures with cameras to see this color). Nothiing like a big storm to sweep the atmosphere clean.

09/20/23 We took a short road trip up north through Lake City, spent the night in a VERY DARK Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, then over through Gunnison and UP and over Monarch Pass and back to camp. Not much aspen color showing yet but it won't be long - although the view looking towards Lake City was pretty SPECTACULAR already! (below)

Black Canyon of the Gunnison (National Park) from just behind our campsite (below)

09/25/23 It was a beautiful moonrise behind camp yesterday, and that's no bull! These are the herd bulls that guard the 80 cows and their babies roaming our ranch. Wilson doesn't like them, and yesterday he picked a fight with the big guy - I was able to keep my pup from getting into trouble with a few stiff yanks on the leash.

09/26/23 Fall color is starting to get going in the high country out here - here's the view from Slumgullion Pass (11,530') looking back down towards Lake City this afternoon.

09/29/23 a wildfire just west of us has been pumping out a lot of smoke, which adds a great deal of color to the sky at dawn.