Roadside Attractions v.2 (Detours)

On a recent drive to Colorado, we found some curious sights...

Detour #1: La Veda, CO. A town where the deer:person ratio is apparently 20:1.

Detour #2: For some reason, both times that we have decided to drive through Alamosa, we encounter unusual and neat events.  The last time, a holiday parade. This weekend, it was ice sculptures and an ice bonfire (pallets stacked inside a huge ice cube):

The Mad Hatter:

The White Rabbit:

Ice Bonfire:

Sunrise. Sunset.

The sun rising outside my classroom window last week:

The Sangre de Cristo Range demonstrating its apt name:

 A well-worn theme...tree, light, dark:

Snow Day...

Kicking myself for not going back out last night in the snow to get the white-coated trees, I went exploring early this morning instead and found mostly shapes:

  

Same raven tree, coming back in the other direction a few minutes more into sunrise...

 Somewhere just down from the ski hill:

 And this guy (or girl), strolling down Diamond Drive...

5 Seconds

5 seconds is a long time in the cold...

If you recognize the hour, you know that can't be the sun rising.

Sand Dunes National Park

I've never been to the Sand Dunes National Park before, but I had time to stop there over the weekend. Such an amazing place that I will have to return to soon - the clouds keeping me waiting for shots and the wind weren't ideal, but I still had fun.

Obligatory dunes in shadow shot:

Robin and Jim, who I met in the parking lot when I offered to send them this photo, enjoying the view:

Sand, grass, wind:

 

A detail shot wide open:

As I was leaving, the light on these trees was lovely...

On the road out, looking back, the sunset was just hitting the top of the mountain behind the sand dunes:

Roadside Attractions

Whenever I drive to Colorado, I always hope to see the wild horses in that 17 mile stretch of open range along the highway and last night I did find them, living their wild horse lives in between me and the setting sun.

Further on, the sun was doing this...

And then this... 

Seattle

Crouching in the shoreline mud, cars rattling the road above me - what you see is an optical illusion of the bridge underside reflected in the water (my lens isn't dirty, but the water surface is).

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean (from 23,000 feet).  I missed the shot I wanted at 2,000 feet because a camera counts as an electronic device, right?

 
But I still like Venus and an undisclosed city lit up below it.