Western Swing Photo Adventure 2011 road trip stats:

Total trip was 47 days with 7682 miles traveled through 14 states with
6 National Parks / Monuments visited in Colorado and New Mexico
(Rocky Mountain National Park, CO., Colorado National Monument, The Black Canyons
of the Gunnison National Park, CO., Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, CO. and the White Sand Dunes National Monument, NM. MT. Evans in Colorado is really not neither a NP/NM but is somewhat governed by some of the same agencies) BTW…MT. Evans is the highest point in the continental US whereby you can drive your car at over 14,270 feet high. Just think…most small single engine and some smaller twin-engine airplanes top out below that elevation because they are not equipped with oxygen. Driving and walking at that elevation is not much of a problem though, but breathing is.

This adventure used 420 gallon of gas @ avg. cost of $3.77/gal. (High $4.01/Low $3.05) The truck averaged 18.3 mpg for a total fuel cost of $1584.00. BTW, this is nearly $500.00 below the original trip of airfare to CO. and 10 days of car rental. Motel and food cost would have been about the same for those 10 days…that’s nearly 37 additional days, which quickly ate up that $500.00 difference.

This trip was 11 nights in motels (includes 6 nights for the photo workshop in CO.) for a cost of $623.00, plus 16 nights camping in National Parks/Monuments for a cost of $160.00.
If you do the math on the motels/camping VS the total days, I camped where I could/dared and mooched off friends for 8days of the nearly 3 additional weeks of this trip.

I was not very prolific in shooting of the three cameras (Canon 7D,Canon 5D Mark II and the IR converted Canon 30D) as I have been in the past photo adventures…slowing down a bit I guess. I shot about 70 GB (3200 images), which averages about 1.5 GB/day. But there were many days of non-shooting…just adding mileage.

There were a few locations on the bucket list I did not make it to…some not for the lack of trying though. Weather played a role on a couple. BTW the weather ranged from around 100 degrees with 100% humidity to a low of 36 degrees (-) /snow and nearly no humidity. You always need to be prepared for the weather swing changes, especially in Colorado. It was a good thing I brought my below zero clothes on this trip. The wind chill of less than 36 degrees in the early morning at over 14,000 feet on MT. Evans was a real eye opener.

But this was a great trip even though it started out not-so-great the first week. Some kind person (hope your reading this) ran into the tailgate of my pickup truck while I was hiking to a waterfall in northern Georgia. Boy! It seems as though Georgia has not been kind to me in the last few years. The damage was not sever enough to not allow the tailgate and the camper top door to close and lock…so for that I was thankful.

So if your thinking of making a similar such pilgrimage to the pixel gods somewhere across this fine nation… such as my solo adventure, this should be an eye wakening trip stats that just might make you think twice. I have written the entire Memory and Moments in Time and it can be found on the Collections Folder here if you dare to read it:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmwnaturesimages/collections/72157627841512140/

But if given the chance to do this trip(or similar such) again,well I probably would go again. But I would take my 26ft camper and not drive as much per given day.

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Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8”L
Exposure, 1/4 sec.
Aperture, f 22 Lens Focal Length, 27mm
ISO Speed, 100

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I was too late for the colors of spring...too early for the colors of fall and I have no idea where the summer rains went to, but obviously it was not here either.

But I was going to shoot this after the 3/4 mile hike come hell or high water??

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Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8”L
Exposure, 1.3 sec.
Aperture, f 20Lens Focal Length,38mm
ISO Speed, 800

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I just love it when people give you directions to get to a specific place. Ohhh..its just down the road a ways...you turn on this dirt road and park at the end and you only need to walk about 300 ft to the waterfalls.

Yeah!!!RIGHT. BS. That just down the road a ways turned out to be over 10 miles with 3 dirt roads to choose from...no signs anywhere to help either. Somehow I managed to get the first dirt road right for a change. I got to the end and there were a bunch of campers there. I asked about the waterfalls and they said "Ya take that tharrr trail over-tharrr, and ya walk about 100 ft or so...ya cain't miss it".

Well that 100 ft turned out to be over a 1/4 mile...Country Feet must be measured a whole lot differently from the rest of the world. So I get close enough to hear the water running but then I come to this extremely steep bank...wet clay slippery as hell even for someone without a metal knee...no way around it and nothing to help pull you up,let alone even think about how in the hell are you going to get back down. Well I wasn't going up that hill for sure. So I went back to the little creek(shown here) and got down to the water and I could see part of the waterfall...and so I got in the cold water and hiked back to where the falls emptied into the creek and did a little shooting. I'll post those next.

I guess there is some resemblance of a motto here...sometimes the small creeks offer the better photo opts for a lot less effort.

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Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8 ”L"
Lens Focal Length, 70mm
Exposure, 10 sec.
Aperture, f 18
ISO Speed, 100

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Well, this is the falls that I couldn't get to by land,which after being there the 60 degree bank would have taken me way up above the falls looking down(far upper right). I generally don't like that angle of view,and I wasn't going to try an climb that steep,slippery, muddy bank anyway.

So here I got into the shallow water of the creek and hiked as far as I could to get this. The water gets much deeper(well over my thermometer) just beyond that tree trunk.

"Just over tharr a ways" probably didn't turn out all that bad after all. But I did have to change socks,shoes and shorts before I could get back into my truck to head to Colorado.


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Camera, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens, Canon 24-70 f 2.8 ”L"
Lens Focal Length, 43mm
Exposure, 8 sec.
Aperture, f 22
ISO Speed, 100
Polarising filter

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Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure 8
Aperture f/22.0
Canon 24-70 mm f2.8L
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

Tags:   waterfalls falls sea-creek-falls small-streams national-forest mountain-streams landscapes georgia audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops

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