Changing Colors on Sugarloaf Mountain

It had been too long since I had been up on Sugarloaf Mountain (8,917′), my favorite local golden hour perch.

(My favorite perch? A hearty, “Yep”. Just type “Sugarloaf” into my website SEARCH box to see how many times I have dragged my camera and tripod up there–in all kinds of conditions!)

So, this morning, with the just-past-full Moon setting some 45 minutes or so after sunrise, and a weather service fore-guess that indicated some clouds but not too many, I thought it might be the place to go.

Getting unstuck from the warm bed and into various layers of winter threads was tough, but I was generously rewarded with the following scenes…

Approaching sunrise, low fog, and suburban sprawl from Denver on the right to Boulder in the center:

Sugarloaf, #1. Sugarloaf Mountain, Colorado, 2017

Patterns of purple and pink to the north:

Sugarloaf, #5. Sugarloaf Mountain, Colorado, 2017

That’s the rounded summit of Mt. Audubon (13,229′) on the left and Longs Peak (14,259′) near the center. The wave clouds indicate high winds aloft, but the low fog contradicts with calm winds below:

Sugarloaf, #7. Sugarloaf Mountain, Colorado, 2017

As the Sun lights the snowy Continental Divide on fire, the grand Moon, drops down toward the lenticular clouds behind the two Arapaho Peaks. The taller of the two summits, North Arapaho (13,502′), is under the larger cumulus cloud while South Arapaho (13,397′) is the highest little bump along the ridge to its left. The higher mount on the right is Kiowa Peak (13,276′):

Sugarloaf, #10a. From Sugarloaf Mountain, Colorado, 2017