Monte Vista Sunrise

The weather last Saturday when I was in Monte Vista for the 30th annual Crane Festival was uniformly overcast, with snow starting to fall in the afternoon. But the Sunday forecast called for clear skies, so I made sure to get up before sunrise and headed out hoping for some stunning photo conditions.

I wasn't disappointed.

My plan was to head back to the wildlife refuge.  But these brick ruins of what I assume were all that was left of a burned-down house called to me along the way.

By the time the sun had started to break over the horizon I'd found a nice place to set up on the edge of the refuge.

Trees, mountains, low fog, fresh snow and the rising sun.  A pretty solid combination to work with.

Silhouettes make me happy.

I forgot all about the cranes for a while, just enjoying how the beauty of the landscape continued to reveal itself as the sun climbed in the sky.

Is it greedy of me to wish there had been just a few clouds in the sky to add a little texture?

I think the temperature was 17 degrees when I left the hotel.  I share that in case you can't feel the cold just from looking at the pictures.

The color of the branches indicated that spring wasn't far off.  But the fresh snow coating them said that winter wasn't quite ready to yield just yet.  And I was glad that it hadn't.