I was so impressed with Cottonwood Pass on Day 2 of my trip that I decided to make Day 3 a full day of just that one place. Mostly, I wanted to shoot a photosphere up there, and those take a lot of time.
So up Cottonwood Creek, between Mt. Princeton and Mt. Yale, I went. First stop was a little side trip to Cottonwood Lake, about three miles up a side canyon.
It was Monday of Labor Day weekend. The day that all of the tourists pack up camp and go home. When only a few stragglers remain, trying to squeeze the last bit of enjoyment out of their Last Adventure of Summer before they have to go home too, back to work or school. I could feel that mood in the air. And here I found a lone boat that hadn’t been put away yet, waiting at the shore for one last trip out onto the water. I call this photo “The Last Day of Summer.”
Because for a lot of people, Labor Day is the last day of summer for them. I could feel the sadness in the air.
Further up Cottonwood Canyon, at the 9600-foot level, are more beaver ponds in Middle Cottonwood Creek:
And near the top, the same creek’s North Fork rushing through a meadow:
And then, the top. I omitted the summit sign from my previous post; here it is:
About the same elevation as Tincup Pass, but this one has a paved road to it!
And, yet another photo of the spectacular Collegiate Range, marching north and west out of view:
I could stand there, drinking in that view all day. And I did.
Here is the photosphere. Not my best, but good enough to show to the world:
Cottonwood Pass spherical panorama on my Flickr site
As usual, I have to link to another site (my Flickr site) to show this to you, because Substack doesn’t handle photospheres. Do click through and take a look. It’s a large file. After it has come through and rendered, use your mouse to look up, down, and all around.
to be continued…
Ken, when I look at your photo of Collegiate Range, I see what looks like a dark haired man’s face, which is part of the mountain range, seemingly staring out.
When I zoom in for the close up I can see it’s made up with shadows. Pretty intriguing!
Can't get enough of those photospheres.