Fall Photo Mad Dash

Our second son, Ben, was born September 7th and as it turns out, you're more than just twice as busy when you have two kids. Needless to say, I hadn't been running to the mountains with my camera. The fact that I'm writing this September 11 post in February 12 is a good example of the time constraints.

That being said, fall is my favorite time to wander around the mountains with my camera. On top of that, with a new little boy in the house, Liam could use some quality time with dad. So I packed up the car and told Liam we were getting up early for a special trip. We left at 3AM - the plan was for Liam to sleep in the car between home and Crested Butte - this plan failed. He did not sleep more than 30 minutes.

Liam taking a break on Kebler Pass

We made it to Kebler Pass outside Crested Butte right around sunrise and hiked through the many aspen stands looking for good pano shots. Below are some of the images we captured together (Liam pushed the shutter release for me a lot).

After hiking and shooting for a while in the morning we drove over Ohio Pass which connects to Kebler. I think the 3AM start caught up with Liam because I looked in the back seat and he was passed out (after crumbling a sticky cereal bar all over my car). A quick look at the map and I had a new plan - drive out the west side of Kebler Pass toward Paonia State Park. This gave Liam a chance to sleep while I drove over McClure Pass to Snowmass. We stopped in Carbondale to make sandwiches for Lunch and confirm directions to the Capitol Creek trailhead. Once again, sticky peanut butter and jelly in my car, this time on the dash.

We drove to Snowmass (near Aspen) and drove up the rough Capitol Creek dirt road. Liam called it "the bumpy road" and was pretty amused by it (I think my Outback disagreed though). Once there we had to wait out a little storm and dodge some angry cattle but hiked for a while along the trail to scope some spots to shoot from.

Hiking along the Capitol Creek Trail

Now we were just waiting for the clouds to clear off Capitol Peak in the background. We were rewarded for our patience:

Capitol Peak and fall aspens from trailhead overlook

Capitol Peak after the storm

Sunset on Capitol Peak

Liam having a snack while we wait for sunset

After sunset I got Liam ready for "bed", loaded up the car and drove back down the "bumpy road". We went through Aspen to drive over Independence Pass to get home. I had never driven this route in the dark...I did NOT enjoy it. Fortunately, it didn't take too long for Liam to fall asleep. After 450+ miles and 6 passes (Wilkerson, Monarch, Kebler, Ohio, McClure, and Independence), our 20+ hour fall mad dash around Colorado was complete. And we were tired!