The Flat Top Mountains do not have many towering spiky peaks, but the sheer massive walls are a sight to see, especially covered in snow. We had visited this location a couple of times before this morning to shoot the impressive view with the fall colors at peak. But after an early snowstorm moved through and dropped over a foot of snow, we couldn’t wait to run out there again.

It snowed all day and night on Friday. The forecast called for clearing skies on Saturday, but the question was if and when was that ever going to happen. The valley was still enveloped in heavy clouds when I got up to check before sunrise. We opted for a leisurely breakfast and spent some time shooting snowy scenes around Steamboat Springs waiting for something to happen. Finally around 9:30 the clouds began to slowly break. We made it to the overlook around 11:00. The clouds were moving quickly, casting shadows across the valley. I opted to shoot a series of images to later stitch together into a panorama since I wanted to take in the whole width of the scene. I shot multiple series in an attempt to get one that had the majority of the landscape not in shadow. In reviewing my images, I was fortunate to come away with this keeper.

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