Shelf Road at Night

   Recently on my way home from work in Cripple Creek at about 7:30 p.m., the moon was almost full and the landscape on the Shelf Road was covered with snow from the last snow storm. With the moon being almost full and all the snow it was almost like daylight. as some of you may know, Shelf Road can be can get pretty dark, especially in the area known as Window Rock. I was thinking I should be getting some photos because it was clear with stars out and the temperature was not very cold, it was probably in the mid 30's.

Photo above is Window Rock. I used my headlights to help with the light to focus the camera.

Since I had the camera and tripod with me I would stop to get some night shots. I found a good place to pull off so that other vehicles could get by. Got the camera out and set it up on the tripod. Made my adjustments to the camera to take some long exposure images. as I was setting up a pickup went by, so I really wanted to get this shot of this truck. The camera was ready, all I had to do is wait for the truck to cross my field of view. The truck finally got into my field of view and I pressed the button on the camera, the shutter stayed open for 20 seconds. The lights from the truck creates a light trail making a creative image. 

   An issue I have when trying to photograph at night is focusing on the subject manner. With the moon being almost full there was just enough light to see what I was focusing on.

   

 This is the result I got from my evening on the shelf road.

Hayden Pass

   Recently I found a new group page on Facebook called "Pueblo 4x4 Crew". I joined the group hoping to find someone local to possibly to go wheeling with. I put a post on the group page asking if anyone knew what the condition of Hayden Pass was. I got a quick response from a guy in Pueblo who said it has been a few years since he was on the trail last. He says its easy but technical enough to make it interesting. He asked if it would be okay for him and his family could join us. We agreed to meeting in Canon City on Saturday morning at a local gas station.
  
   Saturday arrived and it was a beautiful morning. I was looking forward to this day as was my wife Jamie. We were both going meet some new people we have never met before. I was also looking forward to getting some good photographs of the scenery today. we made our way to the local gas station to where we were to meet the couple from Pueblo. We filled Rubi ( our jeep's name) up and got a few snacks. Shortly afterwards the couple from Pueblo showed up in a blue jeep with the name Lil' Bruiser on the hood. We made our introduction and headed out down Hwy. 50 to Coaldale a small town near the base of Hayden Pass.
  
   Hayden Pass is a rated 3/3 trail and is approximately 5 miles one way. Once we reached the beginning of the trailhead we got out made some adjustments to our jeeps to prepare for our Adventure over Hayden Pass.

   The trail starts going up hill and get bumpy as you go. Doesn't take long before you start driving over rocks. The road does narrow in places and at times slopes towards the edge. Just from the short climb up the trail the view was amazing.

 

 

 

We were probably a couple miles from the summit of Hayden Pass when we stopped for a bit. We all got out stretched our legs and took in the scenery. I got my camera out and started snapping pictures. I did get some shots of Mount Otto and Galena Peak.

 

The air was cool here and the clouds were moving fast over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. After taking some pictures and enjoying the scenery and cool mountain air we loaded up and made our way to the summit of Hayden Pass.

   We reached the summit of Hayden Pass with no difficulties. We all got out and when we did we were hit with cold air. It was so much colder here on top. The elevation was just over 10,000 ft. We did some photos of us in front of the summit sign. Also while at the summit I had planned on doing a geocache but it was to cold for the kids to walk 0.64 miles to the geocache. You definitely can tell fall is in the air. We all loaded up and started heading down the west side of Hayden Pass towards Villa Grove. As we started working our way down I noticed that the aspen trees were changing more on the west side than the east side.

I did manage to stop and photograph the changing aspens. As we went further down the trail the couple we were with stopped to pick some wild raspberries. The kids loved snaking on them. Couldn't stay long as we were blocking the trail. Also the lower west side of the trail was a little more technical. There were some pretty good sized rocks that we had to go over or maneuver around. it was nothing that Rubi couldn't handle.

   Hayden Pass ends in the small town of villa Grove on Hwy. 285in the san Luis Valley Between the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range and the San Juan Mountains. we stopped before reaching Villa Grove, where we decide to eat our lunch, talk take some more photos. The view of the San Luis Valley was amazing from here.







While here overlooking the san Luis Valley an older couple in a Jeep Grand Cherokee stopped and chatted with us. They than asked if they could join us in going over Hayden Pass. They didn't want to attempt it by themselves. We headed back the way we came and enjoyed the scenery from a different view.

   Made it back to the bottom and there we chatted some more while we aired back up The older couple did invited us to there place in Howard for a Klondike bar and iced tea. We both declined as we needed to head home, but we thanked them for there generous offer. Both jeeps were aired back up. we said good bye to our new jeep friends and let them know we had a great timeand that we needed to do this again.

   All in all we had some good family time, got lots of pictures and made some new friends.