"I can run in snowshoes!"
Story by Nicole
“You sure get an early start,” the park ranger commented as Jason rolled down the driver’s side window. It was 6:40 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning, and we had just pulled up at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison Visitor Center. The lone park ranger, after we assured him that we were dedicated photographers and not lost tourists, got into his truck and headed off into the pre-dawn light.
We were heading out to the rim of the canyon for two reasons: Christmas shoeshoeing, which I had been excited about for months, and dawn photography, which we had decided on the night before. The morning was cloudy, so we weren’t expecting a spectacular sunrise. We finished layering clothes (we had packed for the arctic), slung cameras around our necks, strapped on our snowshoes, and headed off on the Oak Flat Loop Trail.
For a while, we worried about heading down to the river, which we had been expressly warned against (it’s apparently very hard to get back out, summer or winter). After a while, though, the snowshoe trail diverted from the river trail, and we trekked across a ridge on the inside of the canyon rim.
Forty-five minutes later, we saw the sun peak through the clouds and touch the top of the ridge opposite us. We climbed out of the canyon and headed home.
We spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning with Britt, Nicole’s dad.
The next two photos are sunset photos from Monarch pass and Blue Mesa Reservoir. While they did not fit into a narrative, we liked them. The first was taken when we stopped on Monarch pass on the way to Gunnison. The second was Jason’s single picture of the sunset at Blue Mesa Reservoir on Christmas Eve before his camera battery died.
