The Tanager Blog

Tim is not just an early riser, but a marvel of science. As I write this, I’m trying to recall ever seeing him yawn. I’m trying to recall him drowsy, lethargic, or even wiped out.

The guy is always alert.

I lived with Tim for a year right after we graduated from college, I’ve backpacked with him five or six times, and his energy is boundless. Maybe his wife, Lexi, has seen him yawn — and maybe all of this will change in February when their baby girl arrives, but for now, Tim is the kind of guy who sprints through the grass at a flock of blackbirds, the kind of guy to take a sweep-oar boat across Grand Lake in five minutes, the kind of guy to twirl fire around himself, the kind of guy to climb on top of a hay bale and rock it back and forth while giggling like a school boy who snorted his 7-Up.

It was this ceaseless energy that had Tim up early and raring to go last Sunday at dawn, perfectly willing to drive my ass around the ranch country surrounding Steamboat Springs.

He’ll probably comment on this post about my commentary on him. Go ahead, Tim. The form is below.

The Upper Yampa River Valley is defined by wide, sprawling ranches with cinnamon-roll hay bales. These ranches are speckled with forked cottonwood trees that stand over the aimless wandering of the Yampa (one of Colorado’s most pleasant rivers). I love it in the early morning when the highway is empty and the fog is lifting off the river. There are always flocks of ducks on the slow river, and by 8am its common to have seen three or four great blue herons.

I’m sure the valley looks quite different today, just seven days after these photos were taken. The plant life in the valley was brittle but still alive and vibrant with color. Since then, a cold front has moved in and the complexion of everything in the mountains is changing rapidly as things tilt toward winter. My next blog post will be from yesterday’s hike in the Eagles Nest Wilderness. Night and day, the difference one weekend makes.

Below is my favorite barn in the valley. Steamboat Springs has become famous for its barns — tourism ads and travel articles have made them icons because they are so photogenic. Tim and I were getting hungry, so we didn’t linger long at the barn, but I tried my best to replicate a shot I took a year ago with the Olympus.

Above is the new shot with the Canon 40D and a Sigma 10mm-20mm 1:4-5.6 lens. Below is a photo I took 54 weeks earlier when I was shooting with an Olympus E-500 and a Zuiko 14-45mm. Clearly I had better clouds a year ago…

…Or at least better clouds facing south. This year, to the north, I had these wispy angel-wing clouds to work with. I love how the barn’s roof mirrors the upward action of the clouds.

Here is another view.

And on the way back to the condo — with breakfast at Freshie’s permeating my thoughts — we spotted this mailbox. The only thing more quintessentially Colorado than that is the license-plate coffee cabin in Crested Butte.