I’ve been experimenting with a couple different locations along the Foothills Parkway lately that I don’t usually shoot from, just to try to come away with something new.  This particular spot is a bit challenging because there are just a few shots there, as opposed to seemingly endless shots at the other locations, due to this pull-off being severely overgrown.  In other locations, you can pick and choose what you’re shooting based on what the light is doing, but in this spot, you just have to point your camera between the trees and hope something interesting happens right in that one spot.  Perhaps needless to say, I had to return to this spot many times before I came away with a shot I was excited about.  In any case, on this particular morning, the conditions aligned for me and as the warm light from the rising sun started intensifying, the fog in the foreground started to light up, and some color some of the lower clouds.  I really like this scene because it just seems like something out of a movie to me.  There is almost something Jurassic about it, like a pterodactyl needs to be flying through in the distance! 🙂 (That didn’t happen, in case anyone was wondering).

This brings up a disappointing topic (the overgrown overlooks – not the pterodactyl).  It’s really unfortunate that the most visited national park in the country suffers from such budget shortages.  The Foothills Parkway, which offers visitors the best, and most diverse views of the park, while also being the most accessible to all persons, suffers from years of neglect.  Many overlooks are overgrown to the point that you really have to stand on top of your car to see the views that the designers intended.  Case in point, this particular overlook would be the most dramatic view in the park, in my opinion, and is the only overlook with two rows of parking to accommodate lots of visitors, but is now overgrown to the point that you essentially have to peer between trees to see the beauty it hides.  The Park Service has announced that it will be repaving this part of the Parkway soon, and I’m hoping it will also re-clear all of these overlooks so that all people can enjoy them.  It would, after all, be REALLY sad to have a nice newly paved road leading to overlooks that are all overgrown.

More next week!

–Dan Thompson