Rocky Mountain National Park, December 2021

The pandemic dissuaded me from making my normal winter visit to Colorado last year.  Even with the Omicron surge this year, being vaccinated and boosted I felt much more comfortable traveling.  I did continue to mask up when indoors, maintain social distance, and limited the number of friends I saw.  One thing I didn't sacrifice was a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.

I planned to hike to Emerald Lake, something I hadn't done in nearly 12 years.  Temperatures were in the upper teens, and skies were mostly cloudy with light snow.  The sun was still doing its best to burn through when I stopped to shoot Nymph Lake.

The temperatures and clouds weren't much of an inconvenience.  And as I climbed patches of blue sky were clearly visibly to the east.

The wind was a much bigger factor, with gusts up to 30 miles an hour proving to be a real hassle.  In fact, the wind was blowing so strong and steady and directly in my face when I got to Dream Lake that after waiting for a few minutes I decided to just turn around.  My goggles had frozen, so I couldn't see anything with them on (admittedly a rookie mistake -- I should have kept them on my face the whole hike).  But I couldn't walk directly into the wind without goggles, either.  I hoped to get at least one photo of the conditions, but I was reluctant to set up my tripod.  And I hadn't kept my cell phone close enough to my body to keep it warm, so its battery had died.

On my hike out I passed a guy who saw my camera and suggested I shoot this wood.  On my hike back I took him up on his suggestion.

Disappointed with how little of winter I'd actually shot, and well ahead of my planned schedule, I decided to stop at Sprague Lake for some pictures.  I really liked this composition with the fallen tree in the foreground, but after a just a few minutes my fingers went numb and I hustled back to my car to warm them up.  It seems an upgrade to my cold weather photography gloves is also in order.

My rust from not dealing with cold weather regularly really hurt me; if I'd made a couple of different decisions before starting I probably would have gotten the experience -- and images -- I was hoping for.  Still, it was good to breathe the crisp mountain air.  And the wind didn't stop me from my traditional stop at Oskar Blues in Lyons for a late lunch on my drive back.

This will probably be my only winter photography outing on this trip, but I will be better prepared whenever I do take my next one!