Finding a place to stop

The roadways through Colorado have some great scenery. I often stop or want to stop every 500 yards to take another picture. However, just finding a place to pull over can be a trick. Narrow roads, steep mountain passes, abrupt cliffs, and no shoulder roadways are quite common in the San Juans. Sometimes you can get an image out the window at a tiny pullout, but just as often there is no opportunity to stop at all. Then there are the times you are lucky enough to find a place to stop where you actually feel safe enough to set up a tripod.

Those are the locations that I like. If you can find a trailhead and hike in is fun, but when the big view is all around you, you can get those stunning images right next to your vehicle. I like to think of myself of someone who is looking to get away from the crowd and road, but when you are driving and the scene presents itself, you can take some wonderful images awefully close to your car.

Take this image here. The location is on the road to Red Mountian pass. For many miles of this drive there are steep drops and no places to stop. There are also a few great scenic overlooks that every car seems to stop at (yes, I stop at them too). But this was a great place with a good shoulder to stop on that everyone else just kept right on going past. That gave me plenty of time and space to be under a darkcloth to focus without worry of a suprise encounter with the next car stopping. And as you can see, I am right on the side of the road. Sometimes it is that easy. The view is great and all I needed was a good place to stop.