A visit to Sundance

Julie's mom, Joan Fernane, is in town visiting this week. Always looking for fun things to do, we drove over to Sundance and up the Alpine Loop. Sundance is a small ski resort, filled with antiquated ski lifts. Not my favorite for skiing, but the scenery sure is gorgeous.

Yes, that's a big pile of snow at the base of the cliff. Looks like it will survive until this winter's snows start adding on.



Joan and Julie, hiking over to see Sullivan Falls.



Julie and I, just before riding the ski lift back to the base of the resort. Yes, we all wear hats. The sun out here is just so intense. There's no humidity and you are at about 8,000 feet. They say that for every 1000 feet of elevation, the sun's rays are 7% stronger.



If you don't like heights, riding the chairlift down can be nerve racking. You have such a big exposed feeling and it is quite steep.



It is hard to tell without blowing up the picture, but there must be 1000+ pine cones on each tree. We had such a wet May and June that the trees were having a fantastic summer.



After lunch at the Foundry Grill, I wandered out into the stream bed and started taking pictures. Hard to do the long delays without a tripod.



From Sundance we went off to Bridal Veil Falls. This is a really cool waterfall, just off a major highway. Notice the thirds. The top is a smaller, more traditional waterfall. The middle is bigger, spread out, and creates a lot more spray. The bottom has some slope and is filled with boulders. That gives is an almost lace-like appearance. Double click on the picture to see it better.

I want to go back in the winter to take some shots of the ice climbers.



And a wrap-up shot of Julie and her mom in front of the falls.



I'm stoked about going back to these areas in a few weeks to try and catch the fall colors.