Some Autumn Color in April

After a glorious sunrise, we traveled about the park seeing a few more overlooks and looking for more wildlife. I wasn’t happy with my photos from the first overlook and didn’t post any here. At another stop we made looking for wildlife, I became more interested in the way the road looked going off into the distance toward the mountains so I took a lot of photos of this scene. Finding a good road for an image isn’t always easy. It has to visibly go off into the distance and lead toward something interesting. I think I have that with the image below.

In the afternoon, after lunch and some rest, we were offered the opportunity to go on a hike in the mountains near the EcoCamp. I jumped at the chance because the mountains were covered with fall foliage and I had been looking for opportunities to photograph them. The sky was mostly clear and the sun was high, so I was fighting lens flare and harsh shadows, but I think I got some nice photos. The image below shows the path near the beginning of the trail leading off toward the mountain.

There was a lot of fall color to choose from along the trail through the mountains. My challenge was figuring out how to compose the photos to be interesting and not just splashes of color. The following gallery is three of my best efforts. Some colorful trees against the snowy backdrop, a distant mountain framed by some trees, and a fence running diagonal toward the mountain side. The red trees on the mountain were a sight to behold.

The trail wound around and came back down the hill side and joined with one of the main trails. Then it eventually passed by one of the lodges with flag poles in front. I really like the Patagonia flag, as it symbolically shows the grass lands, mountains, and the southern cross in the night sky. I took the opportunity presented by the two wind-tattered flags with the lodge and mountains in the background to take a photo. Try as I might, the sky in the upper right is still over-exposed.

Early one morning at Torres del Paine, I saw the Southern Cross for the first time, and I understood why I came this way, and yes, I had a Crosby, Stills & Nash song stuck in my head several times on this trip.

The next day it was on to Tierra del Fuego. But first, one more puma photo because they are so darned cute.

30 thoughts on “Some Autumn Color in April”

  3. How great that you got to see Fall colors, being that you don’t get to see them in Texas much. Stunning pics!
    The puma’s face is cute. I think it is asking you to come a little closer and be its friend.

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  4. I like that tip about roads leading to something interesting. I’ll keep it in mind, as I have a vacation coming up soon.

    Beautiful pics, as always. I’m looking forward to the Tierra del Fuego pics.

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            1. Yes, we pull out the fancy red carpet for special people, … like your wife.
              And if she wants to use it to roll up your, I mean someone’s body, well we have many of “middle of nowhere” places to take it too.

              Liked by 1 person

          1. Yup! That’s when you may be in danger of getting rolled up in the red carpet. Just saying…….
            I know, its crazy for us to prefer getting to our destination in a short.time vs driving around in circles, isn’t it. 😛

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  6. Beautiful photos… all of them. I really like the one you pano-cropped into the header. Triggers something that makes me want to walk it alone.

    I think I look at photography in the same way as music. I appreciate technical expertise, but it’s not what draws me to a particular piece. A “good” photo, like good music, says something to the “spirit”. And the internal image that creates draws the viewer in. The image of a road little-traveled makes me want to contemplate its destination.

    The hotel looks nice. We were a little farther north, using the refugios along the north side of Lago Nordenskjold.

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    1. The WordPress theme that I use seems to pano-crop my image itself, I just try to work with it.
      I do love a good lonely road to photograph. It urges the viewer to mentally wander it, wondering where it might lead. Thanks for you nice comments about it.
      I don’t know what that lodge was like, but it looked nice enough from the outside. We were a hike up the hill from this lodge in a place called EcoCamp. I suppose I could have spent many more days seeing all the sights and trails there, but I am happy with what I did get to see.

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      1. My theme will do the same thing, so I usually pre-size them to fit. I rather like the format. But I’m not very good at seeing a good pano image in the field.

        Just checked out the EcoCamp… for some reason, I was picturing you staying closer to Lago Grey. So we were to your east, packing in along the base of the mountains. The refugios are just packers’ and mountaineers’ accommodations, raised wooden tent platforms, cooking areas and minimal shelters/food stations, intended to keep the crowds from fouling everything. I think that for photography anyway, you had most of the better perspectives.

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        1. Most of our excursions were by bus to a site that our guide had picked out to explore. The last hike was from the EcoCamp, up through some private land and then back down along the main trail.
          Our guide said that he often led 3 – 10 day hikes around the park as well. But most of our hikes on this trip were under 3 hours as it was billed as not too rigorous.

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