Archives

Portfolio
Fall in Northern New Mexico

Fall in Northern New Mexico

Fall 2022 Travels
Cumbres and Toltec Railroad
Northern New Mexico
Fall in Southwest Colorado

As part of the same trip where I had my good fortune with the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, we also had good luck with the scenery and weather on most of drive. That is, if you don’t count the brief snow, rain, and too-close-for-comfort lightning strike. 

With any landscape photography, it’s helpful to keep expectations low. Weather, light, and just luck have big parts to play in any outing. I had viewed this detour as scouting for a future trip in a future year, so expectations were low for actual photographing, but it turns out they could have been sky high and I still likely would have been excited about how it all came together.

Brazos Summit on Hwy 64.
Cumbres and Toltec Railroad

Cumbres and Toltec Railroad

Fall 2022 Travels
Cumbres and Toltec Railroad
Northern New Mexico
Fall in Southwest Colorado

How does the expression go – it’s better to be lucky than good? That sums up my chance encounter with the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. This narrow-gauge railroad is part of the same network that also comprises the Durango and Silverton narrow-gauge railroad, the only other section still in service.

We were taking a detour on our way home from New Mexico to check out fall colors and locations for future trips when we briefly pulled over at a viewpoint and heard a train horn in the near distance. I didn’t even think the train was still running this late into the season.

I raced to grab the camera and wait, wondering if it was actually coming our way. A minute later when it appeared around the bend, I shot several photos and thought I was lucky to get even one view of it. Then, I realized how slow it was moving and that we could easily keep up with it while it headed down the valley. We turned around and stopped three more times taking photos from different viewpoints.

I’ve planned shots like these before, researching possible locations via Google Earth, looking up train schedules, and figuring out the roads on how to get there. Then I’d wait for the train that turned out to be delayed, while I stood in rain and snow, to get only one shot. But this day, we just happened to show up at the right place at the right time. I couldn’t have planned it better had I tried.

My first view of the Cumbres and Toltec RR.
Trail work with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado

Trail work with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado

This summer I again volunteered for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC), a statewide nonprofit that engages volunteers in stewardship projects across the state.  This includes restoration work, trail maintenance, new trail construction, and more.

I’ve photographed for VOC before as well as others (American Hiking Society (AHS) Annual Report Cover) and am glad I could squeeze in two outings this summer. Here are a few highlights.

If you are in Colorado, be sure to check out VOC. Even if actual trail work isn’t your thing, there are many other ways to help (photography is just one). If you’re outside of Colorado, I bet there are similar organizations near you that would benefit from labor and someone to document their work. For any of us who benefit from use of these trails, from hikers to climbers to photographers and others, we should take the time to give back and appreciate what goes into giving us access to so many beautiful places.

Registration.
Black Hills

Black Hills

After Devils Tower, we continued to the South Dakota Black Hills region where we spent several days doing the tourist circuit: Badlands, Custer State Park, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and even Wall Drug. I’ll spare you photos of the latter.

Last time I shared with you the history of the Devils Tower name, I thought I’d continue that this week with background on the Black Hills name. I was actually curious as to the origin of the name and assumed it was related to the minerals in the ground (historically the region’s economy was built on extractive industries, though it has shifted to tourism – essentially the story of so many western towns). It turns out that the hills just look black from a distance, due largely to the evergreen tree cover (see the first photo). I guess the name Really Dark Green Hills didn’t flow as well.

The Lakota name, Pahá Sápa, I think is arguably the even better name, meaning “the heart of everything that is.”

Sunrise over the Really Dark Green Hills.
Devils Tower

Devils Tower

Devils Tower, a National Monument in eastern Wyoming, is small in terms of footprint, but big in terms of geological history, Native American culture* (the original name was more accurately Bear’s House or Bear’s Lodge), and, later, pop culture (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).

I had only been here once before and while that felt like yesterday, when I stopped to think about it, it was actually 21 years ago. It was great to return and I’m glad we had such great conditions for camping and photography.

*The Devils Tower name came from a misinterpretation of a native name to mean “Bad God’s Tower” which was changed to Devils Tower. And for your fun fact, the apostrophe is omitted as the US Board on Geographic Names discourages the use of an apostrophe and has done so since its inception over a hundred years ago, but no one knows exactly why that original decision was made.

A dark, cloudless sky one night provided some of the best star and Milky Way viewing I’ve experienced.