Roxborough State Park, January 2019: Willow Creek Trail

I planned to visit Roxborough State Park to take pictures towards sunset on New Year's Eve. But it was snowing, and visibility was limited. So I decided to roll the dice and wait until New Year's Day and see what the sunrise brought instead.

This proved to be an excellent decision.

The park doesn't even open for visitors until 8 a.m., but I made sure to get there right when it did.  It looked like four or five inches of snow had fallen since the previous day, giving everything a fresh, white coat.

The sun was still low and the clouds were breaking up, which resulted in nice light and interesting skies.

I like that the footprints on the trail are visible, but muted by the recent snow.

The storm wasn't accompanied by heavy winds, enabling snow to pile up in cute little clumps on the leaves.

I appreciated the beauty in both the big vistas and the more intimate scenes.

As the clouds continued to break, I got terrific light on this section of trail and the red sandstone formations beyond.

One thing I love about shooting in winter is that the sun stays low for so long that landscape shots don't get blown out by harsh overhead light like they do in the summer.

Upon returning to the visitor center I took the time for a seven-image panoramic.  I'm enjoying shooting these more and more.

One last shot, and it was time to get inside that visitor center for a while and warm up!