Colorado Wonders

Last week I was in Denver to attend the ASMS conference, the most important mass spectrometry event of the year.  Each year the conference is held at a different location, therefore it's a great opportunity to see new places and National Parks :)

As I have never visited Colorado before, I made sure to bring some photography gear in order to immortalize some of the great Rocky mountains' sceneries!

Unfortunately, I didn't have very much time to wander around, I had only a single day for my hiking trip, thus I decided to go to Rocky Mountains National Park as it was not too far from Denver and it seemed quite nice.

I had brought my K5 with a DA 12-24, Sigma 17-70, and DA 55-300. I find these 3 lenses to be the perfect travel combo as I am covered from 12 to 300mm with descent quality while still being somewhat light, plus I get a pseudo macro in as a bonus 

I ended up driving to Estes Park and hiked from Sprague lake to Bear lake.  I was suprised to see there was still quite a bit of snow along the way!

Small lake on the way to Bear Lake.

Somewhere north-east of Bear lake.

These sun beams were amazing!

I liked the look of these pine trees contrasting

with the white peaks in the background.

One of the first elk I encountered.  It looked like its
winter fur was being replaced by the summer one.

Another view of the same spot as before,
using a wide-angle this time (12mm).

I love the color of these green trees and

how they stand among the pine trees!

This herd of elks was only about 10m from the road!

I love how animals are not scared of humans in the  US :)

These 2 young elks were fighting.

A waterfall I encountered at the end
of my journey (too much sun though a
polarizer + ND grad weren't sufficient!)

A closer look at the elks on a green tree background.

Somehow I liked the mood of this one in black and white.

I happened to stop at a restaurant that had installed small houses
to feed colibris.  Luckily I managed to shot this guy in flight!

Pretty flowers -Pulsatilla vulgaris- 

No wonder there were quite a few fishermen along this
lake as I saw several trouts swimming near the shore!