Down the Rabbit (Ears) Hole

Rod's post from the Dumont Lake area near Steamboat Springs convinced me to make a stop there last week as I was already heading north from the San Juans/Elks at the end of my July wildflower trip. I'm very glad I stopped because the flowers there were unbelievable. Here are a few selections from that portion of the trip.

Above: Lupine and paintbrush near the Dumont Lake road. (I cloned out a little bit of the road under Rabbit Ears Peak in this image).

Later in the day at a nice flower grouping near Dumont Lake (the lake is pictured slightly at middle left). The mosquitos were crazy thick but so were the flowers.

A Monet-like composition of flowers near the lake. Compression is not doing this any favors, but it gives you an idea of the types of flowers that were available to shoot.

A bluet damselfly resting on lupine along a trail above Dumont Lake. While hiking around tons of these neon blue damselflies would flutter around your feet. It took me about an hour of attempts to finally get one on a flower since they much preferred to land on the rocks in middle of the trail that were less interesting photographically.

A lone paintbrush bloom among lupine near a trail above Dumont Lake.

Finally, an image from an early, misty morning at Muddy Pass Lake with a nice view of the Rabbit Ears.

Joshua these are some amazing photos

Fantastic shots, Josh! That bluet photo is a real grabber. They're all good. I just hope you left something, since I'm hoping to head up that way Sunday.

These are real nice but that sharp damselfly really grabs my attention. Glad you had the patience for it.

Sweet set, Josh! I especially like the damselfly and the 'Monet'!

Really great selection Josh!

Really great selection Josh!

Josh, glad you made it up to my backyard, and that's some really terrific images. Dumont should still have some good areas this coming weekend, but also the top of Buffalo Pass---a lot harder to get to, 13 miles of bad road, but IMHO well worth it! Anyone venturing this way shoot me an email---the least is we could meet up for a cold one.

Talk about some great flowers, nicely done.

Great series, especially the dragonfly, the lone paintbrush and Muddy Pass Lake.
I would be tempted to crop the top of the last one an inch or so for a better (thirds) composition.

Great images! Really like that dragonfly!

A wonderful series. No favorite for me...I like em all!

Thanks for the comments everyone. Rod: I might be heading back towards Steamboat in a few weeks for fall colors. I'll definitely let you know so we can meet up this time.

Last week in September is usually best for fall colors here. So far the aspens look real healthy so I'm hoping for a banner season.

The Muddy Pass Lake shot is my favorite!!! I also really dig that first wildflower shot. Great stuff.