Barr Lake and Boulder

Happy New Year!

To close out the old year, I went to two new locations that I had never explored previously. A previous edition of the newsletter mentioned Barr Lake State Park, and I have taken many pictures of Boulder from a distance. But, for one last visit of 2024, I also visited Boulder Reservoir.

Always an adventure!

Flying at Barr Lake State Park was the first time that I had flown in the Class B restricted airspace for Denver International Airport. The crescent moon was still visible while I was granted clearance to fly. There were only a few commercial aircraft flying during my time in the air, and neither they nor any private or general aviation came anywhere near the airspace where I was flying.

The temperature was moderate, but looked cold and dormant as is to be expected this part of December. The blue hour before sunrise was illuminated by the pre-dawn glow in the east, and looked much cooler than it felt.

The water looked especially cold, as shining in the light before dawn. The landscape was slightly surreal with rows and rows of houses seemingly stopping on a line before field after field filled the landscape to the horizon.

After I had completed two flights and taken the above photos and even more panoramas, the day had apparently warmed up enough for the geese to take to the air. Thousands and thousands of birds noisily abandoned their overnight refuge for fields and food in Commerce City and Brighton, Colorado. I’m not sure how I or the drone would have handled so much company in the air at the same time!

Boulder

And now for something a little different, but also largely the same, I visited Boulder itself! I had expected a lot more people at Boulder Reservoir on New Year’s Eve. I’m used to being alone, but there was only one other person there, and the gate to the airfield was locked! There were a number of announced holiday closures around Boulder, but the Boulder Model Airport wasn’t one that I had seen.

The reservoir itself is far north of Boulder, and there were a number of general aviation aircraft flying in and out of local airfields in the rural area. I flew a little drone weighing only about 250 grams, the latest version of one of the first DJI drones that led me to discover this: aerial photography!

Determined to get some photos of one of the most photogenic areas in Colorado, I stopped at an overlook west of Marshall Lake in Boulder County. With the Flatirons and the futuristic looking National Center for Atmospheric Research in the background, I was able to capture some ground-level photos before checking for flight restrictions and taking to the air.

As if to encourage more photography, the skies cleared and the sun came out. Up in the air, I could use the drone to zoom in to features like the Entrance to El Dorado Canyon. I’ve been wanting to capture this view since, well, probably since the very first time I happened to drive by!

The wider view of El Dorado Springs and the Flatirons Vista takes in the panorama that follows the ditch (a canal, really, but its name is Community Ditch) that is the source of Marshall Lake. The dormant and dried grasses filled the landscape until the foothills and the intermontane ecologies rise up the sides of the mountains.

The Boulder Flatirons looked amazing in the late-morning sun. No airplanes were nearby, traffic flowed along Highway 93 with a couple of other onlookers stopping at the turnout off the side of the road, it was an ideal time to take these photos.

Another view of the Flatirons in one picture that flows with the rhythm and composition of the incline. This is as close as I want the camera to be, in order to try to capture the overall sense of the rock formations as well as the details.

This area can be so fascinating, as if it was its own little world!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this little edition of the newsletter, but more is on its way for 2025! Please let anyone you think might be interested know about Colorado HIGH SKY, so we can share the view!