‘You sense when a great storm approaches
It rambles and shakes from the floor
Feels like horses stampeding
Just nature marching once more
The awesome drips that are speeding
Like bullets when rain hits the roof
Its hard to quiet your heartbeat
When drops are like horses hooves
They seem to be chasing their shadows
The shadows being the clouds
The darkness of forces approaching
Thunder that threatens…out loud
Flares of natures ambition
Feeding the earth with such force
Spears of light…ammunition
Threatening us all on her course
Marching like Sherman she broaches
The marshes that lead to the sea
Afterward calming her creatures
The animals, birds and then me
The calm after she leaves us
Its heaven smitten with greens
Limes and colors of emeralds
Washed over and smelling so clean.’~Susan Kathryn de Vegter

 

Snowmass Village,Colorado 10.3.11 22mm 1/60 F~22 iso 100

On my return from a day trip over to Crested Butte via the Kebler Pass(Near highway 133 & the Paonia Reservoir), the skies started to turn gloomy with rain closely approaching. Being that the Kebler Pass is mostly a dirt road, I couldn’t spend more than a couple minutes getting this shot before I raced toward Highway 133 on the dirt road trying to beat the storm & the muddy flooded road that it would bring with it. More info:   K Kebler Pass(10,007ft) This is just one segment of the West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway, but is a popular fall drive on its own. The 30-mile Kebler Pass road follows Coal Creek west from Crested Butte and climbs gradually past the old Keystone Mine.The graveled road follows the old Rio Grande Railroad grade toward Kebler Pass and the once booming mining camps of Irwin and Ruby, the lumber camp of Telco, and the coal mining town of Floresta. At the top of the pass, a road forks left toward Ohio Pass and Gunnison and right toward Kebler Pass. Kebler Pass heads into the Anthracite Creek drainage and through incredible Aspen groves, meeting Highway 133 at the Paonia Dam. This is a popular route linking Crested Butte to roadways that travel to Aspen, passing through the charming towns of Redstone and Carbondale along the way.