Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Independence Lake Trail, Independence Pass, Colorado

We decided to drive up Independence Pass and hike up to Independence Lake this morning even though weather looked a little bit glum in Snowmass.  Of course, up on the pass it was raining softly, but we figured our new raincoats were up to the task and we set off up the trail.  The grass lining the valley was made more intense and saturated by being wetted from the rain, a deep shade of yellow green.  It made the perfect backdrop to the various white, red, and purple wildflowers.  I wish I was better with their names, but I’m not, perhaps someone else can chime and let us know what we’re seeing here.  As we got further up the valley we ran across this magic carpet of wildflowers up against the burbling stream, a perfect little Colorado Mountain Summer vignette!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Maroon Bells Wildflowers, Colorado

We’re up in Snowmass for the week for my daughter’s theater camp and we mosied up to Maroon Bells after the big BBQ this evening.  Boy, the wildflowers are out, as you can see in this photo.  It really looks like a yellow and green carpet in front of the aspen trees with the very occasional purple accent, it was absolutely wonderful, a beautiful way to finish off the day!

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 4

This was, unfortunately, the last day of our adventure trying to photograph the erupting volcano.  After our first few days we had little luck with the weather and so no luck with the photography.  Of course as we were packing up the bus to drive back to Reykjavik the clouds lifted and afforded us some stunning views of the volcano.  For the first time we were actually able to see the volcano from our hotel.  So, we decided to head back up for one last chance at photographing the volcano in nice conditions, a move that we were sure would upset Einar’s schedule at the restaurant this evening.  But we figured that could wait!  I was happy to be able to get this panorama of the eruption and the long ash cloud as it headed off towards Europe to wreak havoc, a perfect end to the trip.  What an adventure this has been, bumping around for five days with thirteen other crazy people trying to get as close to the volcano as possible.  I loved every minute of it and am sad to be heading back now, but life awaits me back home.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 2 (cont.)

After the day’s activities we headed back for a nice dinner at the wonderful Hotel Ranga and then had a lecture after dinner.  As the weather was quite bad at the hotel we figured it was at the volcano as well, but someone checked the webcam and became very excited that something was happening.  A group of us loaded onto the bus very excitedly and headed out, hoping to get the magical shot of the lighting in the ash cloud.  Of course, when we got out to the volcano it was clear that the whole area was completely socked in.  We did stay around to take some pictures, as long as we were there, and this is what we saw.  The increased humidity level must have caused the steam clouds that can be seen emanating from the heated water coming down off the glacier.  And just we could see a faint glow from the lava at the base of the thick cloud cover, it created quite a surreal scene.

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 2

The clouds have returned this morning and enveloped the volcano preventing us from getting any interesting pictures from our usual location in the valley.  So, Einar arranged for us to drive up the backside of the volcano onto the glacier and try to get as close to the crater as possible.  We would be escorted by the chief of police and the entire mountain rescue squad, just in case something bad happened to any of us.  We met them at a farm at the base of the mountains and transferred ourselves and cameras into smaller super-jeeps that would drive us up the glacier.  I ended up in the vehicle driven by the chief of police and it was a nice opportunity to meet some other Icelanders.  As we drove up on the hillside it was apparent that quite a bit of ash had rained down on the this part of Iceland.  Usually the terrain is verdantly green, covered by the spongy moss that grows in much of Iceland.  But the terrain was a grayish brown, dead looking, and the Icelanders were amazed by this as well, as you can see in this photo.