Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park

Our hike to Ouzel Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park Saturday was marred only by the rather heavy rain that hit just as we were ending the moderate, but pleasant hike.

Although a 5.4 mile hike with a mere 900 feet elevation gain would normally be too easy to really interest me, at these elevations I was quite winded after some of the steeper stretches. Luckily my son Tyson was carrying Logan, and Jen is four months pregnant; so, I didn’t feel like I held anyone back too much.

This popular trail follows a beautiful stream most of the way, and there were several opportunities for great photographs, even if the clouds were so heavy that several of the pictures I took, particularly those using the new 300 mm telephoto lens were blurred to the point that I wouldn’t use them. In addition, I’m traveling without Photoshop so the pictures don’t seem quite up to my usual standards. In other words, I usually make some minor corrections in Photoshop before I post pictures to my site.

Although we managed to glimpse the shy water ouzel the falls are named after, unfortunately I had my wide-angle lens rather than my telephoto lens mounted on my camera and was unable to capture a picture of it. What I did manage to get were some nice pictures of the falls

falls.jpg

and of an Amanita muscaria mushroom that I read about in one of Issa’s poems but had never actually seen until Tuesday.

mushroom.jpg

Overall, the hike was a great success and I’m looking forward to doing another one next weekend before returning home Sunday night.

One thought on “Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park”

  1. Great pictures Loren – I’m jealous of your Amanita Muscaria shot – I saw one this year but was too winded from my hike and couldn’t keep the camera still enough so it’s badly blurred. The stream shot really puts you there – you have a good eye.

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