Mayflower Gulch (Summer 2024: Part 1)

A five mile (8km) hike to an alpine gulch over 11,000 feet (3350 m)

I’m baaaaaaaack! Did you miss me?!

It has been a whirlwind summer. Between June 12th and July 7th, I was home for approximately two and a half days. To say that I’m exhausted is an understatement. However… worth it. I had an incredible summer full of adventures and, of course, photography!

You are reading this newsletter because you are a subscriber, you read other photographers’ newsletters, or you stumbled upon it randomly. If you are new here, I use Substack to share my photos and the stories behind them, and boy do I have a lot to share. I took hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures in June and July of 2024. That means I have a lot of stories to tell, and I want to ensure that I do this summer vacation justice. So… I've divided my narratives and images into sixteen newsletters—SIXTEEN! Are you ready to get started?

Let’s do this.

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We started our first vancation by heading out west to Breckenridge, Colorado. My in-laws have a timeshare there and were on vacation themselves when we started our trip. We decided to use Breck as a jumping-off point to western Colorado because driving it in one shot would take too long, especially since the state closed Highway 50 over the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

My in-laws love that I’ve grown to enjoy hiking, even though I only hike to take pictures. No matter - they accommodate me in the best way possible. I was ready for a new-to-me hike, so they decided we should check out Mayflower Gulch. This would be the easiest hike of the first part of our trip, coming in at 5.2 miles (8.3 km) round-trip.

From the vantage point at the start, I knew it would be a good hike. My in-laws pointed out that we were headed to the snowy bowl in this shot.

The hike itself wasn’t terribly hard, but it was also not super photogenic. We walked through a lot of trees and on top of melting mounds of snow. I chose to focus on my breathing (hello altitude!) and where my next step would be instead of photographing lodgepole pines.

Once we made it to the top, we had a great 360° view of the peaks surrounding some historic mining cabin ruins.

Why not pretend I live in the 1800s and use a sepia edit?

The first thing I wanted to capture was the ruins with the wide-open vistas.

The first thing Adam (lower right corner) wanted to capture was the “window shot.”

Said “window shot” - I love a good black and white edit.

There was a second “window shot” on the back side of the cabin

My father-in-law didn’t mean to be in my photo. However, surprise!

I loved the view of Sheep and Elk Mountains to the west

The little puffy clouds overhead left gorgeous shadows on the peaks and foothills on an otherwise Colorado bluebird day.

I took a tight shot of the craggy peaks of Atlantic Peak and Fletcher Mountain. They reminded me of a smaller scale version of the Tetons.

We ate lunch and then headed back down the trail. Since it was after noon, the sun was high in the sky. The bright sun at elevation melted the snow on the trail quite rapidly, so the hike down was more of a challenge than up. I was incredibly grateful for my waterproof boots, whereas Adam and my in-laws had wet feet when we got to the car.

Look at this view from the parking lot! The wet feet crew were annoyed that I was still taking pictures, LOL.

I’ve photographed these mountains outside of Breck probably hundreds of times. But there is something magical about summer snowy peaks, blue skies, puffy clouds, and shadows on the mountains.

I enjoyed this hike tremendously and would love to try it again in the winter. I think this would be a great snowshoe hike, so next time Adam goes skiing, I have a plan.

Cheers.