August
7, 2006
Day 6 – Big Sandy Trailhead
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Day 6 – 5:30 am
I slept well in the
truck as temperatures got down into the low 40s overnight. With no
sunrise location picked out, I decided to make breakfast then head down
the road to check out some of the lily ponds that I had photographed on my
first visit.
During the first days
of the trip, we had noticed that many of the flowers looked to have been
hit with a frost. Not too surprising given the elevations we were at. I
was surprised, however, to see that the waterlilies at these lower
elevations had also been dinged by the cold weather. After a few stops,
it was clear that there weren’t going to be any nice blooms to be
photographed.
I headed back to the TH
around 8:30 and decided to hike back up towards Meeks Lake. It was dark
when we went past there our first night, and I wanted to see it in the
daytime. I explored the area around the Big Sandy River as I slowly
meandered my way to the junction. I wandered a little past looking for
intimate compositions in the riparian areas alongside the river. After an
hour or so around the river, I headed up the trail to Meeks Lake and was
quickly greeted by fields of purple aster and buckwheat that had turned a
dusty rose. Battalions of butterflies flittered from one group of
flowers to the next. The light was pretty harsh by this time, and good
images hard to come by, but the scene itself was beautiful.
Day 6 – 11:00 am
I looked down at my
watch around 11:00 and realized I had better head back to the TH. Jack
and Scott were departing the Cirque in the morning, and knowing how fast they
hike, I expected to see them before noon. I wasn’t at the truck for more
than 10 minutes when Scott came up looking very tired, but also very
happy. Jack was right behind him.
We caught up on the
events of the past two days, shook hands and parted ways. Jack was off to
Utah, and Scott and I began the trip home. The official end of the trip
came in Rock Springs where Scott and I stopped for a big, fat, juicy
hamburger and a coke. The drive home across Wyoming was uneventful, and as
we came into Denver, an amazing, stormy sunset greeted us. A great end to
a great trip!
Intro
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Day 1
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Day 2
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Day 3
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Day 4
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Day 5
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Day 6
