The snow set in just as the fall colors were reaching their peak this fall while I was up in Steamboat Springs shooting with good friend and fellow photographer Rod Hanna. We had to spend a day waiting out the storm and were anxious to get out and see if the leaves were left hanging on the aspen trees.

Getting around that day was a bit challenging in areas since almost a foot of snow had fallen in the higher elevations. Most of the day we travelled the roads that were somewhat maintained and didn’t have any problem at all. It wasn’t until we headed up to Rainbow Ridge for sunset that things got challenging. Since it is only a county road that turns into a forest service road at the top of the pass, there wasn’t any maintenance past a certain point. As we climbed up the road, the snow got deeper and deeper. Luckily there were some fresh tracks to follow and we only met one truck coming downhill. Somehow we were able to park at a wide spot in the road without getting stuck when we reached the overlook. The sun was breaking through the clouds, lighting up the hillsides. I setup my tripod and followed it around, framing up various compositions and managed to come up with this one I liked. There wasn’t much time for shooting though. We decided we sure didn’t want to be on that road in the dark and retreated back down the mountain.

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