by Zack Schnepf
I recently returned from a trip to Colorado following the fall color with good friend and fellow Photo Cascade Member Sean Bagshaw. This was a trip Sean and I planned over a year ago. The plan was to bring our mountain bikes and get a few rides in between photography sessions, all while traveling in Sean’s trusty Camper Rig the Millennium Falcon II. Colorado is known for its it’s spectacular scenery, and epic mountain bike trails. Both lived up to their reputation. It was a fantastic trip, full of amazing photography, incredible mountain biking, good food, and friendly people. With the help of the Millennium Falcon II we were able to cover a lot of ground and we always had the flexibility to change our plans depending on the conditions. It was my first time to Colorado, but it was Sean’s third trip here and his knowledge of the area was essential to our success.
Our first stop was Moab, Utah where we met Bret and Melissa Edge at the Bret Edge Gallery. Super nice people and a beautiful gallery. If you’re in Moab make sure to stop by, also make sure to stop by Love Muffin right next door. Love Muffin is a fantastic cafe, great coffee and food. After our quick stop in Moab, it was off to Aspen, CO. Aspen was beautiful and the color was already at peak when we arrived. We went to work right away and headed into the mountains. Sean was eager to test out the capabilities of his newly customized camper rig, so we took some pretty rough dirt roads into some lesser known spots in the Capitol Peak forests. I snapped a quick photo on our way up a steep section of road here. After a lovely few days in the area we headed across Kebler Pass and into Crested Butte.
Millennium Falcon II Climbing Into the Mountains
I loved Crested Butte the moment we arrived. The fall color was spectacular and the town is Awesome! If I wasn’t so in love with Bend I would move there. Great food, friendly people, the most bike friendly town I’ve ever seen, and surrounded by the rocky mountains. Crested Butte also has the best mountain bike trails we saw on the trip. You can see a quick video I made of our rides here: MTB Video
Autumn Storm, Crested Butte
We were fortunate to have some storms roll in while we were shooting. It made for some very dramatic moments of light and atmosphere. While wandering around after dinner one night we stopped into the John Ingham Gallery and met local photographer Raynor Czerwinski and his wife Susan who run the gallery. Both Raynor and Susan are very nice and talented artists. I highly recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area. Raynor even gave Sean and I some tips on some lesser known locations in the area. We spent a few days photographing the area, riding the trails and enjoying the town. We could have stayed longer, but decided to see how the color was looking at some other locations. Crested Butte left a song impression on me and I couldn’t wait to come back.
Kebler Pass Aspen Forest
Sean and I set off toward the Sneffels Range around Ridgeway. We explored the area and photographed some of the iconic spots, but the color was way behind Crested Butte so we decided to check out Telluride next. We got caught in a pretty strong storm while in Telluride and found that like Ridgeway the fall color was far behind Crested Butte. The forecast was calling for some low snow levels the next day, Sean and I knew we needed to decide where we wanted to be after the first good snow of the season. We decided to head back to Crested Butte and shoot a location we had scouted previously. On the way back we photographed the Sneffels again and headed up to a location with great views of Chimney Rock and Court House Mountain. We arrived several hours early in pretty cloudy conditions, but we kept getting glimpses of light peeking through. We photographed this scene for several hours, each time thinking that we had probably seen the best conditions we were likely to see, but it just kept getting better. It was one of the best displays of light we saw on the whole trip.
Chimney Rock and Courthouse Mountain
We rolled into Crested Butte just as the winter storm arrived blanketing the area in the first snow of the season. We woke up early and started hiking to our sunrise location on a mountain ridge overlooking Gothic Peak. We arrived and setup as the predawn light was just starting to illuminate the snow covered scene around us. The view on that morning is something I will never forget. The fall color was at its’ peak and with the fresh snow the color was even more vibrant than before. It was a scene we dreamt of seeing, but we knew it was highly unlikely. This made the morning that much sweeter.
First snow on Gothic Peak, Crested Butte
After eating breakfast and running some errands in town we met up with Raynor Czerwiski. He invited us on a shoot to one of his favorite locations on Kebler Pass. We packed up and headed into the mountains still high from the morning session. We had another fabulous evening of photography, and Raynor turned out to be fantastic company. We shared stories and photographed some gorgeous earth shadow twilight and topped it off with dinner back in Crested Butte with Raynor and his wife Susan. It was a great way to end our stay in Crested Butte.
Earth Shadow Twilight in the Rockies
Sean and I shot sunrise on Kebler Pass and started the drive back to Oregon. We stopped in Fruita Colorado along the way to experience some of the legendary single track mountain bike trails in the area. They did not disappoint, we had a great ride and headed to Moab on our way back. I had a shot in my head that I wanted to capture of the milky way over Delicate Arch and I knew the moon would be out to help illuminate the scene. Sean and I arrived in Arches National Park and prepared dinner, we were ravenously hungry from the bike ride earlier. We ate our two burritos each while the multitude of people hiked back from sunset at Delicate Arch. As twilight was settling in Sean and I started hiking against the flow of people coming down the trail. We got quite a few odd looks from people wondering what the heck we were doing hiking up in the dark. Sean and I have both been to Delicate Arch during the day, and experienced the zoo. This was a much more peaceful and enjoyable experience. There were still a few photographers up there capturing some night photography, and Sean and I got to work. I was still learning how best to capture night sky images with my Sony A7r, we spent a few hours photographing the scene. For this image I captured the sky earlier when there was no moon obscuring the view of the milky way, and I captured Delicate Arch after the moon had risen. When we were done we packed up and hiked out in the moonlight with our headlamps off. I really enjoyed the experience.
Milky Way Over Delicate Arch
After a good sleep we headed into Moab and had Breakfast at the Love Muffin Cafe where I enjoyed the greatest sandwich of my entire life, called the Banh Mi. After the life altering sandwich we stopped into the Bret Edge Gallery and had a lovely visit with Bret and Melissa Edge again. After our visit, it was time to get on the road to make the long drive back to Oregon. It was the greatest Photography road trip I’ve ever been on and maybe my greatest road trip period. Sean was a great traveling partner, always positive and motivated to get out and shoot. One of my favorite aspects of the trip was how Sean and I would feed off each other when shooting locations, he would push me in directions I would not have thought of and vice versa. We had great conditions, and the mountain biking was spectacular. Colorado was so beautiful and really lived up to it’s reputation. It left me wanting more, I will definitely be back again before too long.
Location: Bend, OR
Website: www.zschnepf.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/zschnepf77
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zackschnepf/
Zack is an award winning photographer specializing in fine art landscape photography and post processing. “Art is in my blood. My father is a well known poster artist and painter. My mom was a painter, and print maker and my brother is an art director at Facebook. Art is a way of life for my family, and I will hopefully pass it on to my children as well.”
“The love of nature is also something that my family and I are passionate about. I’ve been hiking, biking, rock climbing and backpacking since I was little. From an early age, I learned to appreciate the beauty in nature.”
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