After an awesome day cross country skiing, we were rewarded with this beautiful sunset over the north face of Engineer Mountain located in the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado.

I couldn’t have choreographed a better day! Hope this picture helps you share in this moment…

The sun set just to the right of Engineer peak providing for quite a fiery red lightshow at the horizon.

The Animas River begins it’s journey at the tops of the beautiful  San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado. Unfortunately, it became breaking news recently when the EPA accidentally released millions of gallons of toxic mine waste out of the GoldKing Mine near the town of Silverton, CO.  Videos and pictures circulated the news and web for many months showing the toxic orange stained water flowing through several states, eventually entering Lake Powell hundreds of miles downstream.

This is a river that I play in or at least have the great fortune to witness most everyday with it being only a few hundred yards from my doorstep. Today, the news crews are gone but the ugly orange sediment still lingers at the bottom and edges of Animas especially where the river flows slowly.  The experts are hoping that the spring run-off will wash away and further dilute this sediment. Nature does have a wonderful way of cleansing itself and hopefully this process will happen sooner rather than later.

I have tried to ease the pain via photography by trying to bring out the true colors of this beautiful riparian ecosystem.  My hope is that the natural colors I have captured will help overpower the orange-stained banks. If nothing else, it makes me feel a lot better about this special river and begins the healing process…

This picture was taken on a subzero morning hike along it’s banks. It was refreshingly beautiful with the steam coming off the nearly frozen river channel with a heavy frost clinging to anything within it’s grasp.

#animasriver #sanjuanmountains  #colorado

It had been a rough couple of weeks trying to get a sunset or anything for that matter to cooperate so you might say I was feeling a bit rejected by Mother Nature. Sometimes I take it a little too personal and even found it was affecting my attitude a little. Last week, the clouds broke open just enough on the beautiful San Juan Mountains to allow a gorgeous beam of sunlight to pierce just a section of the towing peaks. I quickly pulled over to get the shot but as soon I stepped out of the truck, the clouds closed up again and only darkness remained the rest of the evening. It was almost if someone was messing with me. I know some of you have been there before.

The next day, I left for a location I hadn’t photographed for a while but the chances for anything developing were extremely slim as low hanging clouds had blanketed the area with the sun a distant memory. With a negative attitude I set up my gear in the near subzero temperature. To my pleasant surprise, a tiny gap developed at the bottom of the horizon and the sun pierced through revealing one of the most beautiful sunstars I have seen.

It was truly a religious experience as I could feel the warmth from the sun’s rays dancing on my face with it’s saturated light causing a beautiful glow all around me. Just as fast as it came out, the sun quickly disappeared behind the horizon but then the lightshow really began as the sky, snow, and lake below turned a fiery red reflecting off the epic sunset now before me…