Sunrise at Chapel on the Rock

Well happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still kinda stuffed (and yet… keep eating leftovers!).

On to the picture.  Last week I mentioned that I had always wanted to do a cross-country road trip, and work in Colorado turned out to be the perfect excuse to do it.  Once in Colorado, our primary personal objective was to see and experience the Rocky Mountains, because Holly had never been there, and I hadn’t been since I was in high school.  We chose a few places to focus on in our short time, one of which was this small church just on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park in Allenspark, CO.  Called Saint Malo’s Chapel on the Rock, I’m not sure a church (or any building for that matter) could have a more spectacular setting, with the mighty Long’s Peak in the background and surrounded by alpine forest.  It’s quite the impressive stop.

The church itself was undergoing a bit of construction while we were there.  A mud and rock slide had wiped out much of the surrounding area in 2013, and restoration efforts were ongoing.  In fact, I chose this particular angle in part because the church hid much of the construction equipment (and I REALLY liked the reflection of Long’s Peak as well)!  I made this image at sunrise, and frankly was initially disappointed because the sky was completely devoid of any sort of clouds.  However, all that changed as soon as the sun started lighting up the mountain; that’s when the magic started.  The warm orange glow of the morning sun gave the scene just the kick it needed!

–Dan Thompson