New images come to Lava Light Galleries. Images in colors not seen in Hawaii. Living in the tropical islands of Hawaii has many advantages and many great photo opportunities. Of course it dose come with a few disadvantages one being no seasons. If we want fall, winter or spring shots we have to get on a plane and choose our destination and time wisely. Fall colors happen in a very short window for each region, change their peak time wildly, and we have to book our trips in advance. When planning any trip we have to take into account past, present and future weather conditions. Then we make the best educated guess as to when and where to go. Sometimes we have to adapt and change plans on the fly to make sure that our limited time on the mainland dose not go to waist. On this trip we started in Oregon for 3 days. The first photo of our fall trip was the one above. The rest from Oregon are below.
Multnomah Falls
Columbia River Gorge
From Oregon we flew to Las Vegas and drove to Zion National park to hike the narrows. Nick and I have been to Zion many times but neither of us had been there at a time that we could hike the narrows. The peak of fall colors was not happening yet so we skipped everything else in the park and just went right up the narrows for a day.
After our long wet hike we made our way to Arches national park to meet up with Tom Till one of the top photographic artist of the south west. We hadn't seen him from the last time he came to meet with us here in Hawaii. We came very close to running out of gas on a very long stretch of highway that had no services. Ironically after about 40 miles on empty but luckily down hill we arrived at a gas station covered in our friends photos. After a little rest at a friends house in Moab and a visit to Tom's Gallery we photographed for about a hour then met up with Tom for Dinner.
After dinner with Tom It was a mad dash to the Maroon Bells in Colorado for some late night star trail photos reflecting in Maroon Lake. We stayed by the waters edge freezing in sleeping bags doing long 2 hour + exposures. In the morning we were greeted by an amazing sunrise and the realization that we were a little late for peak fall but a lot more yellow aspens remained then we expected and the mountains already had a light dusting of snow. We couldn't have asked for better conditions no wind, snow, a little yellow left on the hillside and an amazing sunrise.
After just a few hours lakeside at the Maroon Bells we headed for the Grand Teton mountain range. To our surprise as it was supposed to be a week earlier, we hit peak colors in the Grand Tetons. We spent a few days photographing sunset and sunrise then spending days looking for moose to no avail.
We then headed up to Yellowstone national park in search of a few animal photos as fall colors were done at the higher elevations of Yellowstone.
As we left Yellowstone through Grand Teton national park we got lucky with a clear wind free night and we were able to photograph star trails reflecting by the Teton mountain range.
On the way back down to Zion from Grand Teton we made a short stop in the Wasach Mountains witch were ablaze in color. We even got to Bridal Veil falls just in time for sunset and to witness moonrise above the falls shortly after.
We arrived in Zion around 3am and waited for the park office to open so we could be first in line to get a back country pass to hike the Subway as the weather forecast was for massive rain and thunderstorms for the next few days. If we couldn't get a walk up pass for this day our plans to hike the subway would be out due to flash floods. We got lucky and got one of the last passes. Prior to our long hike up the river bed to the subway we stopped by the bridge to capture sunrise with the fall colors that were now happening after our 8 days of travel elsewhere.
After our long hike in and out it was dark and the rain had started. We made the drive back down to Las Vegas. It was now time to rest and relax in the pool and hot tub at Nick's dads amazing home on the golf course in Vegas. Back to comfortable beds and sleep. All in all I would have to say it was a great trip as we accomplished most all of our goals and even had a few bonus shots along the way. Well thanks for taking the time to read and I will be sure to keep everyone posted on upcoming trips, events and awards.
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