Glenwood Canyon and Dotsero, Colorado March 2020
We visited Vail, Co in March 2020 for a ski trip with our friends Peter and Sommer. A reprise as it were for the previous year’s attempted trip to Vail that ended up with us wandering a neighborhood around Laguardia and eating a fantastic French meal in Jackson Heights. This year we made it to Vail, under the pale of Covid-19 which was really starting to ramp up in the USA and Europe as we headed out on the trip. While not blessed with stomping snows Whistler was getting, we had a nice trip (some photos made into the site earlier than this set). We all needed a day off, and Dominique and I really enjoyed a trip through Glenwood Canyon and to Glenwood Springs and a reprise was decided. My camera was NOT behaving that is, someone is still trying to fiddle the settings….so I was NOT happy with the shots as they came off the camera, especially in Glenwood Canyon…..most of the Glenwood Springs shots ended on the proverbial cutting room floor….whereas the Canyon shots were washed-out. I had been using darktable to develop my images but wasn’t happy with what was happening and since I had not shot in RAW (not by choice, by stupidity), darktable was not doing it for me with my washed out JPEGs. The an old friend (Mike Craig, sometime fellow in mate at a certain preparatory school in Dedham MA) mentioned CaptureOne. Well, if you shoot digital and you use a Fuji body, this product is AMAZING. Its RAW developing of Fuji images is BETTER, its treatments are BETTER, and its freaking WICKED fast (that’s some high Bostonian praise right thar) So, the Canyon shots did NOT come out great but acceptable. The Dotsero shots were fantastic. We had had lunch in Glenwood Springs at the >…. and with Pete and Sommer’s permission ,we looped the Canyon to get some shots. We had never stopped at the dam and it leads to this lake which should have yielded FANTASTIC shots - Petes android phone was KILLING IT. But my fuji shots WITH TRIPOD looked like S-H-I-T. Well, you can see and let me know if Capture One rescue worked. We continued our journey down I70, trying to get to the frontage road- Dominique had seen gorgeous red cliffs the prior journey which we were too late light wise to shoot, as well as cute ranch bridges all spindly and rusted - too late to shoot since we had zoomed past…..well, we pulled off early at Dotsero Landing because, 1) it was the first legit exit after the canyon and 2) golden 20 was raging..Those shots needed nothing but some light crops…..We tried to continue on what we thought was the frontage road but nope, it was a dead end and we ended up on the I70 again. Zipping past the cute little ranch bridges and the gorgeous red cliffs……with no exit in site….and if you know golden 20, you know it was now too late, cuz it was DARK.
We finally made it to Vail with Sommer and Peter, after a try last year (2019) when we ended up walking around the neighborhood near Laguardia and having a ton of fun, and having a fantastic meal in Jackson Heights. Well, this time the plane made it and while COVID-19 was busy ramping up (or, actually, as it turns out, it was ramping up before we even left Boston, probably in January when I was doing my first solo trips to Vail) we were busy having fun skiing. Everyone’s body (well, Pete took pity and put up with us) was hurting, a day off was needed, so Dominique and I suggested a reprise of a trip we enjoyed to Glenwood Canyons and Glenwood Springs. We added some stops on the way back - still missing those red cliffs and ranch bridges on the siding AGAIN. Dotsero was fun…..
