With some promising clouds just visible in the night sky, I was up the trail at 4a.m. this morning in hopes of capturing yet another spiritual sunrise from atop Bear Peak, above Boulder. The winds were howling like a freight train on the summit–indeed, I could hear the warning horn. But…that actually turned out to be from a real train chugging up the steep grade through nearby Eldorado Springs Canyon.
Nice choreography.
For folks who are out-of-state and, say, living in hot and humid lowlands with little experience with Colorado sunrises, you might be wondering if these pictures are typical or if they are, in fact, outrageously awesome. You might even wonder if I have a “parameter of sunrise awesomeness”. Well, as a matter of fact, since you asked…
On the Camp Counselor Carl (CCCarl) Scale of Awesomeness (SOA), this morning’s celestial event comes in about average (say, a 6 on the 1-10 scale). Very nice, but Colorado can do much better…and one always hopes for something extra special when out and about this early, especially given the physical effort involved.
Some images…
I like the play of color–the gold, yellow, and red with the semi-frozen, silver-blue of Marshall Lake:
The next photograph is a good index of the population pressure as it builds against the foothills of the Front Range. At least, in places, Open Space provides a buffer.
Had we had a Texas/Arizona/Florida growth philosophy, that carpet of lights (already imposing) would have rolled densely all the way to the west to the crest of the foothills and beyond.
Note the isolated semi-circle of reddish lights on the lower right–the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR):
Front Range Metropolis at Dawn. From Bear Peak, Colorado, 2015
I like the red-to-pink palette with a “winged summit” in the middle. You can just see Pikes Peak far away to the left and a distant Mt. Evans to the right under the big wave cloud:
Last Steps to the Summit. Bear Peak, Colorado, 2015
A similar view, but moving the tripod higher along the summit ridge, bringing South Boulder Peak into view. It’s always good to experiment with even slight changes of perspective:
Pikes-Bear-Evans. Bear Peak, Colorado, 2015
The rising sun hits the foothills and the Flatirons. Green Mountain is just visible to the left and the geology of this uplifted zone slides away into the distance:
Boulder View. From Bear Peak, Colorado, 2015
The giant plasmic meatball heaves into view across the Great Plains:
Sunrise. From Bear Mountain, Colorado, 2015
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