In mid-October, I went back to spend three days exploring the park – Each day I hiked 8-10 miles, drove 20-30 miles of jeep trails, and made sure to shoot sunrise and sunset on each end. I got a ton of pictures, but not much to write… so here’s 16 pictures of beautiful Capitol Reef National Park.
Cathedral Valley is located at the northern end of Capitol Reef National Park, a remote area with no services or paved roads.
Capitol Reef National Park offers more geological variety than any other park on the Colorado Plateau, which itself is one of the most unique natural landscape areas in America.
After such an incredible long weekend last Fall that was full of beautiful weather, vivid-yellow Aspen groves, and colorful sunrises and sunsets, I was unbelievably excited to hit the road again this fall to shoot the Colorado Fall foliage throughout the state.
Despite the popularity of Missouri Lakes, it’s still in a remote part of Sawatch Range and the Holy Cross Wilderness with rugged ridgelines, alpine meadows and lakes.
Overall, the Gore Range is relatively inaccessible due to the lack of mining roads that criss-cross so many other Colorado mountain ranges and they have a reputation for a lot of trailhead access red tape, due in large part to private property, particularly on the eastern side.
Six miles into the Gore Range and the Eagles Nest Wilderness, Gore Lake sits at 11,414′ at the base of Snow Peak (13,024′), Willow Peak (13,357′), and Red Peak (13,189′).
A couple years ago, my buddy found a hike to the unofficially-named Crater Lake in the Gore Range at the base of the Spider (12,692′) and the Fly, two also unofficially-named twelvers residing on a rugged spur ridge west of the main spine of the central Gores.
In the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park, the glacial Tyndall Gorge is home to three incredibly beautiful alpine lakes, each surrounded by increasingly impressive views of Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain rising dramatically in the distance.