Until COVID came along and disrupted global travel, I would usually take a business trip to Seattle about once per quarter. The weather in Seattle can be notoriously hit and miss, and on many of these trips I would often have trouble getting both good light and a free schedule at the same time. Frustrated after a few trips where I had brought my camera and gotten nothing, I nearly left it behind on my trip last June. But I sensed something in the weather forecast that one evening might be nice, and my calendar looked free from a distance. So I took my camera along, and nearly missed the critical time window anyway.

When we lived in the Denver area, I absolutely loved visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park whenever I could. It was about 1.5 hours away, and had some of the most spectacular scenery in the United States. On one visit in 2015, I wanted to find some scenery from the Trail Ridge Road up high in the tundra, but I struggled to find a good spot. On a hunch, I parked at the Lava Cliffs Overlook and walked up the hill across the road where I found this amazing view of the Trail Ridge Road zigzagging down the mountain with Longs Peak in the background.