IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Today I decided to take a day trip up to the Elk Mountains near Crystal and Lead King Basin. I had heard that most of the back-roads up there were opening up (earlier than usual) and I hadn’t been up that way in a few years, so I thought it would be nice to get back up there again.

As I was driving up to McClure Pass, I noticed the nice light on this large section of green aspen trees.

Spring Aspens by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

I ended up visiting the ‘Crystal Mill’ twice during the day hoping to get some good photos, but the sky never really cooperated with me on this trip. Here are the best photos I was able to get. I’ll have to return another time to try again.

Crystal Power House by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Crystal River & Mill by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Amanda and I spent the last weekend camping in Gray Copper Gulch, which reminded me of my visit there in 2009. I decided to go back and reprocess a few of those older photos including this one. This was one of my favorite photos from that day and I was lucky enough to have some nice clouds in the sky on that visit.

Just a little teaser from our camping trip to the San Juan Mountains this weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend, so stay tuned for the trip report in the future.

Memorial Weekend in The Needles | Day 3
Memorial Day | Monday, May 28, 2012

After another night of great camping weather we had some breakfast and set out hiking so that we could visit the Flying Carpet Panel. We also explored a few small side canyons before hiking back out to our vehicles near Cave Spring.

This is one of my favorite Barrier Canyon Style pictograph panels, but unfortunately I haven’t made it here in good light yet. Maybe next time…

Flying Carpet Panel by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Here’s Jared taking a photo for some scale of the figures painted here.

Jared and the Carpet by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Another panel of pictographs nearby.

One Arm Panel by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

This is a photo I took a few years back that I decided to reprocess recently. I never really liked the colors of this photo but I did like the light, so I decided to convert it to black and white and I really like it much better now. It’s an amazing ruin and I really need to get back and take some new photos of it 🙂