Jason Godwin's Weather (and Other Stuff) Blog

For the next two nights of the trip, we would stay at Ridgway State Park , which has quickly become one of my all-time favorite places to camp. Not only is it just a great campground, but you have excellent access to the northern San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. On Day 4 of the trip, we would explore the town of Ouray and its immediate vicinity. We started off the day by driving up Owl Creek Pass. Owl Creek Pass is accessed by Ouray County Road 8 which intersects U.S. Highway 550 very near Ridgway State Park. The road is unpaved, but well-maintained (at least during the summer... I cannot speak to it in the winter), and we had no problem driving a Nissan Armada up the pass (in fact, we saw a few sedans). The views did not disappoint as the fall foliage in the San Juans was very near peak! Ascending Owl Creek Pass. The road offers numerous easy turnouts to take in the views. Ouray County Road 8 in Owl Creek Pass. The road gets narrow and steep at times (prepare to go slow and u...

This week, I am featuring an autumn photo for no reason other than I am ready for cooler weather! As I write this, nearby Fort Worth Alliance Airport is 91 F with a dewpoint of 70 F. Gross! This photo was taken in Devil's Den State Park in northwest Arkansas (not too far from Fayetteville). At the time this photo was taken, the temperature was somewhere in the low to mid 40s. My group and I had camped here the night before (and the night following). The first night, Fayetteville Drake Field Airport recorded a low temperature of 16 F! Luckily, I was using my REI Trail Pod 15 sleeping bag, which is rated for temperatures down to 15 F. While the forecast showed lows dropping into the upper teens, and I knew my coldest-rated sleeping bag only went down to 15 F, I brought the thermal layers and some extra blankets, and ended up being quite comfy. The hardest part was at some point, I had to get out of the bag and get a campfire going. A couple of other cold weather camping tips I lear...

For this week's installment of "Photo of the Week", I am featuring what is probably to date, my best Milky Way shot. This photo was taken last June from the South Rim Campground at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park , Montrose County, Colorado. The photo was taken using my Nikon D3300 DSLR equipped with a Tokina 11-18 mm wide-angle lens. I used a wide aperture (f/2.8), short focal length (11 mm), kicked the ISO up to 6400, and did a 20-second exposure. My advice to photographers attempting a similar shot: don't focus overly on what my settings were, or what someone else's were. While those settings may be a good starting point, some trial and error (and I mean, a lot of error) will be required. I think I initially started with a lower ISO, and kicked it up higher to really get the deep space objects in the shot. I should also point out that this photo was minimally post-processed, except for perhaps some slight adjustments to the exposure. Using Stell...

For my inaugural post on this new blog, I will kick off my "Photo of the Week" series with the cover photo to the new website. This photo was taken on the ascent up Independence Pass, Colorado in June 2019. State Highway 82 traverses Independence Pass, and is the second highest paved mountain pass in the U.S., reaching an elevation of 12,095 at the Continental Divide. Only Trail Ridge Road (U.S. Highway 34) in Rocky Mountain National Park is higher. Independence Pass connects Aspen on the west to Twin Lakes on the east. Several prominent high 14ers are visible from the pass including Mount Elbert (the highest point in Colorado at 14,440 feet) and La Plata Peak (14,361 feet). The highway typically opens to traffic the Thursday heading into Memorial Day Weekend, but opened late in 2019 after one of the snowiest winters in recent memory. Even in late June, snow was abundant above the treeline. Entering Independence Pass from Twin Lakes (east of the Continental Divide) ...