Welcome back to Colorado HIGH SKY: 2026! Thanks for returning, and also for reading this little photo journal entry.
I recently rode my bike on a typical trip, but it was an atypical day: Christmas Day. It wasn’t yet dawn, and it was dark. But it was even darker because I forgot to wear my clear goggles while riding—I was wearing sunglasses! The pictures from this, however, are from another day, while still experiencing abnormally warm temperatures for December and January. The fiery sky was a vision upon beholding it.
Clouds before sunset over Denver, Colorado. Taken with an Autel Robotics EVO Lite+.
The sun had risen while I was visiting Hutchinson Park, and I happened to catch the shadow cast by the shape of the earth on the faces of Mount Morrison and Green Mountain, but only for a moment. The clouds over Colorado would only allow a sliver of the sunlight to shine through.
Sunrise comes to Mt. Morrison and Green Mountain, Lakewood. Taken with a DJI Mavic 3.
It was warm for an early January dawn, and the Front Range has been mostly free of snow this winter, while snowpacks in the high country are only half of their expected depth by this time in the season. The dryness does make it easier to ride my bike, although my “fat tire” bike usually does okay on ice and slush. A closer look at Mt. Morrison shows Red Rocks Amphitheater still in shadow.
A still shaded Red Rocks at the base of Mount Morrison.
The clouds themselves had been glowing with the newly arriving sunlight before the dawn. I’m glad I had my drones with me! My little Autel Robotics EVO Lite+ drone has now been flying for four years, and taken more than ten thousand photographs in all that time. I know this, because it has kept a running tally, incrementing the value with each photograph it takes, and using that as part of the name of the file when saving the photos.
Wide-angle view before sunrise of the clouds to the south of Denver.
I was lucky that the cloud cover left a gap at the horizon, in order to capture the colors on the clouds at sunrise. While many mornings have been overcast, few have provided just the right amount of cover to get fiery skies like the one seen over Hutchinson Park of Lakewood, Colorado.
Another view of the clouds, looking towards the east.
When the sun rose, it only made a brief appearance. Shining between the earth and sky, it wasn’t quite “Colorado HIGH SKY” but it was as colorful as it was diminutive. By later that afternoon the clouds had lifted, but before that, the day had been as colorless and dull as it had started colorful and bright.
View of Downtown Denver, to the left, and the sunrise, of course, to the right.
With the fire extinguished from the sky, coolness dominated, pierced by the local star. The dormant vegetation no longer reflected the saturated skies, but retreated to earth tones.
Sunrise over Hutchinson Park.
I hope your New Year has started both colorful and bright. But if it hasn’t, please feel free to join me in my little world of both light and color!
360° panorama of Hutchinson Park at sunrise beneath turquoise clouds.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this little photo journal entry. More blasts from the pasts will follow next week and onward into 2026.
