My Colorado Wildflower Photography Tour
I’m back and somewhat rested from my trip to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado last week. I went on a photography tour with Jeff Parker/Explore in Focus™️ . It was quite a whirlwind trip but we packed in as much exploring as we could. Getting up before dawn is not really my cup of tea, but I sucked it up and did it, and I’m so glad I did. This is going to be a photo-heavy blog post, so prepare yourself for lots of pretty pictures!
We stayed in Silverton, Colorado, a secluded little town just 9,318 ft high. There is a lot of interesting history in this town. I stayed at the Grand Imperial Hotel and although I ran into a ghost tour as I was checking in, I didn’t get visited by anyone at night. Whew.
We started off bright and early Tuesday morning to try to catch sunrise. There were a bit too many clouds but it was still breath-taking. Like ‘literally’ breath taking. 😆 I had no idea breathing could be so difficult at high altitudes! Also, because there was so much snowfall this year and a large amount hasn’t melted yet, we couldn’t go to the originally planned locations and the wildflowers were a little sparse.
Taken from Eureka Gulch.
I really enjoyed the afternoon trip to Anvil Mountain. Again, we couldn’t get all the way to the original destination because the snow was blocking the road, but where we did stop was beautiful.
Adorable little chipmunks were one of the main attractions.
One of my favorite shots. I just love the colors!
‘Let me introduce you to my little friend.’
First time playing with my crystal ball.
Wednesday morning we were up again before the sun. The original plan was to get to Clear Lake but again, snow was blocking our road. And again, the clouds were just a little too thick for anything spectacular. And it was extra chilly this morning, but still gorgeous.
Once the sun came up we traveled down the mountain a bit and stopped at a really pretty location where I got to play with light and my macro lens.
I love getting starbursts from the sun peaking behind trees. ✨
Later Wednesday afternoon we drove to Ouray, CO only to get rained out for the night. We ate some ice cream and drank some beers (I know, gross combination but oh well 😬) while we waited for the storm to pass, but we ended up going back to Silverton for a great dinner and lots of laughs and a few more beers. 🍻
Thursday morning we got to sleep in a little bit, but we woke up to beautiful sunshine. We headed back to Ouray for a full day of shooting. First stop was Gray Copper Gulch.
More fun with my crystal ball.
We stopped at California Pass to get a view of Como Lake. The color of the lake was beautiful!
View from the opposite direction on California Pass.
Next we stopped at Animas Forks, a little mining ghost town in the middle of the San Juan Mountains. The history of this area was really interesting!
Animas Forks Ghost Town
Everyone knows not to eat yellow snow, right? Well, apparently you shouldn’t eat pink snow either. This is called ‘Watermelon Snow’ because it smells like watermelon (confirmed), but it’s caused by algae (the same algae that causes the ‘Red Tide’ in the Pacific Ocean) so you definitely do not want to taste it.
Watermelon Snowball
As we headed back down the mountain we stopped a few more times for some more gorgeous nature.
All of these trees are dead from draught and beetle infestation. 😢
Pretty Columbine flower.
I hope you enjoyed looking at all of the pretty photos. These are just a small portion of everything I took all week, but it’s going to take me a long time to go through them all. If you enjoy hiking, trail-riding, ghost-hunting, or cool weather, I highly suggest a trip to Silverton, CO. Now it’s time to start planning my next trip. Where should I go?
