Me? Rant? Never! Okay, well maybe a little, but only on days that end in "Y" and then only if I'm in groups of 1 or more or when I'm by myself or with someone. But never fear, readers, for this blog will only be half a rant.
Last weekend I went on an overnight trip to Steamboat Springs for a quick visit with some of the in-laws. Not a bad deal, right? Spend the night in Steamboat Springs, a wonderful mountain town. I'd get a chance to visit with some of the favorite relatives and there was a chance I'd be able to photograph some wildflowers based on reports I'd read on some of the photo bulletin boards. So off we went.
On the road about 1:30 Saturday afternoon and almost immediately I should have known how the weekend was going to go. About 20 miles out I had a vision: I left not 1 but 2 tripods at home. Can't shoot wildflowers without a tripod so we turned around and headed back to the house. An hour wasted. But not to worry, we're on the road. The rest of the drive was uneventful and we made it to Steamboat in a little over 3 hours. Let the adventure begin!
Second issue (and a portion of the rant): We pulled up to the hotel just before 4:30 and I went to the office to check in. Check in time is 3:00, right? So I tell the desk clerk who we were, he checks the computer, then gets on a walkie talkie and starts talking in some foreign language for about 3 minutes. He gets a reply and tells me our room won't be ready for 20 minutes but we can wait in the lobby if we want. Now the burn begins....so back to the car, sit there for 20 minutes then go register and get our suitcases all settled into the room. Then back in the car and off to the condo where the in-laws were staying.
After a bit of conversation we figured my brother in law and his kids weren't going to be arriving for a while so me being me, I decided to head up the hill to Dumont Lake to look for wildflowers and found a Bonanza. To quote Richard Landis, "...sweet flowers in profusion.." (if you remember that song you must be really OLD) but I did have a wonderful 90 minutes of shooting before the light faded. I wondered why it was getting so dark till I looked at my watch and saw it was past 8pm. Guess I better get back down the hill for supper.
We had a grand supper, Mike and the kids finally arrived, and we had a good visit before heading off to the hotel for the night and there we ran into the second hotel snafu. I tried to utilize the free wi-fi only to discover the password had expired. Another trip to the desk where I was told "yes, we know. The password always expires about this time on Saturday night." Grrrrrrrrrrrrr But I got it going before hitting the rack for a few hours of sleep. Up early the next morning and back up the hill for some sunrise light on the flowers. It was overcast so I had unlimited shooting time but I only played for about an hour before heading back to town to wake the family and have breakfast. On the way back I detoured up the Buffalo Pass road for a ways and was surprised by 2 big bull moose grazing in a meadow. I've seen lots of moose before but these were the 2 biggest bulls (and only big bulls) I'd ever seen. Of course I had a wide angle lens on the camera and they headed into the woods before I could change lenses. Note to self: (again) when traveling with cameras in wildlife habitat, keep the freakin telephoto on the camera ya bonehead! I missed the shot but I now know where to find them. But on with the story.
I got the gals awake and dressed and we took a peek at the breakfast area at the hotel. It was very small and very crowded so we decided to head to the condo for breakfast. Good meal, more conversation. Finally, we decided to head home...at 1pm. I knew we would hit the heart of the "coming home from a weekend in the mountains" traffic but had no choice. Sure enough it took us over 5 hours to get home. Arrrrrggggghhhhh.
But now the rant begins. I'm really fired up at the human race, specifically the rich ones who build huge homes in the woods and expect others to protect them from natural disasters. You know who you are and the pine beetle devastation is YOUR FAULT! I'm not delusional enough to believe that this is the first time the forests have suffered this malady but before there were no megahomes to protect. Mother Nature controlled the pine beetles by burning their little behinds out. But now we can't do that. We HAVE to protect property and structures. Don't we? I say NO FLIPPIN WAY.
The conifer forests of Colorado have been raped..abused...pick your term and the farther north you go the worse it is. North Park and the area around Steamboat Springs exhibit the worst beetle kill areas I've ever seen. I get so depressed when I see that I can't even begin to express it in words. My creativity was challenged when shooting the wildflowers because I couldn't find a backdrop of conifers that wasn't full of brown ugly beetle killed trees.
I know it will never happen but I sure wish we could utilize Mother Nature's way of controlling beetles. If we could just have a few major forest fires and back off from supressing them. If we could just let them burn...I truly think that's what it would take. But the toll on personal property would be enormous and for that reason I know it will never happen. We'll never just let the fires burn. And that, my friends, is a travesty worse than the beetle kill.
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