Sunrise on Tombstone Ridge (Aug 14)

I've been up to Tombstone Ridge more than once for sunset and have really enjoyed it. I'd been wanting to get up there for sunrise for awhile and I finally made it up there.

You can click on any of these images to enlarge them.

The sun breaks above the clouds over the plains

There was quite a bit of light in the sky by the time I made the 30 minute drive, so I set a pretty fast pace on the 1.5 mile or so hike on the Ute Trail. It was around 35F degrees and a little windy -- I had the tripod's legs extended and I could feel the wind buffeting the tripod.

On the way up I saw three bull elk on the trail and as I lifted the camera, I realized I still had the wide angle 24mm prime lens on the camera. I snapped this picture anyway and am quite happy with how it turned out!

Crop of a wide angle shot

I managed to make it to some interesting rocks as the sun broke out of the clouds and I enjoyed the nice light on the rocks, tundra, and distant mountains.

Longs Peak with tundra

Nice light on the northern ridge of Longs

As I was scrambling around the rocks, to my delight, I found a happy cluster of columbine. 

As I hiked back out, I saw that the skies to the west were completely clear. 

Blue skies over Forest Canyon

I definitely would like to return to this spot for sunrise and morning light!