Last nights storm seems to have dealt the death blow to a glorious stretch of fall color.  It’s amazing how fast the leaves drop once they reach “the” point.  This is Wheeler Creek a few days past it’s prime, shot with a Singh Ray Vari ND filter to slow everything down and get that smooth blur on the water.

Was out for a quick hike yesterday afternoon in between football games as Tonka and I try to suck the last drops of marrow from this wonderful fall weather.  Came across this amazing waterfall that I’d only seen early in the spring when it’s a raging torrent.  Wish I would have had a vari ND filter with me to really try and do it justice.  No matter, I think this one will prove to be a good bit of groundwork for a  future image which isn’t a bad result for a dog walk.

The alarm worked and I went out into the first hard frost of the season on the valley floors.  Temps in the 20′s made for a long wait as the sun and clouds did their thing over Mountain Green, UT.  This was a bit of filter chaos as I had an ND, reverse ND and a CP filter on the camera to try and balance out sky, foreground and the snow covered mountains.

I’m kicking myself for sleeping through my alarm today and missing what had to have been a most epic sunrise.  With the fall colors still exploding, a fresh coat of snow and wispy clouds dancing on a deep blue sky I really blew it.  That said, it was so pretty I went up to Snowbasin anyway with the dog to take it all in.  If I’d have shot these 4 hours earlier they might have been pretty special.  Hopefully I get another crack at it here soon.  The forecast is promising.

Spent the weekend in Durango, CO and while most of it ended up at the bottom of an Oktoberfest stein there was some fantastic color on display.   Before heading back to Zion Tonka and I snuck off to catch sunrise this morning on top of Coal Bank / Molas Pass.  The clouds that had gathered the night before had vanished which was a real photo-op bummer but I thought this image conveyed the enormity of the Aspen stands that grace the San Juan mountains.

Dawn on Coal Bank Pass

First Light on Molas Pass

Standing at 10,910 ft.

If anyone is looking for some epic color in Utah right now the west side of Soldiers Summit closer to Spanish Fork on 6 is just exploding with Oak and Maple.  With the snow on the way the contrast should be just out of this world.  There is some gnarly construction going up there so consider yourself warned.  I would have stopped but came through mid-day and taking pics would have been worthless with the light.

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