I went to Montana to shoot a wedding; Surprise Glacier visit along the way!
The older you get, fewer places blow your mind when you see them. What used to amaze you when you first saw the world might not make an impact anymore.
Glacier is not one of those places.
Though most people may spend weeks planning a trip to this awesome place, I found myself there almost inadvertently. I was contracted to shoot a wedding in nearby Whitefish, MT, with a couple other people from the same studio. Two days before our flight touched down in Montana, my second shooter Corey suggested we take the morning of the wedding to check out Glacier.
It was an obvious choice.
Corey wanted to catch the sunrise at Lake McDonald, so we woke up extra early to drive in the dark to the Park entrance.
When we got to the lake, there were some pretty serious clouds covering the eastern horizon; no fiery sunrise for us this morning.
Even so, the smoke in the air from the western wildfires gave everything a yellow hue, making for some very unique pictures.
The rocks in Lake McDonald aren’t quite as colorful as the pictures let on; they are still unique though!One of my new desktop background images!loonslooooooon
Once we decided the ‘Sunrise’ was done, we had a little bit of time to make our way up Going to the Sun Road.
I had rented a 70-200 f/4 for the wedding, and it really came in handy here. The longest lens I had owned up to that point was probably 140mm, so the extra zoom really allowed me to try some new things.
Handheld smooooth waterThese were from a secret, off-trail spot200mm power!
We drove up the road a few more miles and stopped at a bend in the river, where there was a nice surprise:
Do you see him?
I’ll zoom in a bit:
I actually saw two black bears just down the road from me! Successful trip!
At this point, we knew we had to head back to get ready for the wedding. We stopped one last time at the point we had shot the sunrise.
Look at those blue skiesIf you were SUPing and kayaking in late August 2020 in Glacier, let me know
Thanks for reading, let me know if you enjoyed the pictures!
Ultra-light and ultra-versatile, I’ll walk you through how to make your own
Quarantine tent photos! Once I get the chance to get out in the woods with it I’ll take some proper shots
I’ve been getting into Ultralight backpacking slowly over the past few years. It was time to upgrade my tent, and I really wanted an HMG Ultamid 4. They go for >$800, and that’s really expensive. In all other parts of my life, I try to make things whenever I can. Therefore, I decided to make my own DCF (Dyneema Composite Fabric) Pyramid tent.
(Since this article was written in 2020, we’ve gotten MUCH more into Ultralight backpacking – check out our cottage gear company theveryleast.co.nz! -CF ’24)
If you have never heard of pyramid tents, they’re pretty straight forward: it’s a tent that’s a pyramid. They are generally 4 sided with each corner staked in, then a pole goes in the middle to provide the tension. This walkthrough makes a floorless tarp, which is incredibly lightweight and ideal for some conditions; however, sometimes an inner net is needed and you can either make your own or buy an inner net. Like most ultralight tents it isn’t freestanding, which is a deal breaker to some. But if you’re looking up MYOG Pyramid tents, I bet you’ve accepted that already. Take a look at Max Neale’s review of the Ultamid 4–he’s a very experienced Alaskan adventurer, and he sings high praise about them. They are very stable in wind and weather, spacious, and lightweight.
I chose a pretty large pyramid (often called a ‘mid’) so that I could have more flexibility. It can accommodate 4 people in a pinch, or 2 people with room to cook on a rainy trip. It can be used as a base camp for a backcountry skiing trip, or a cooking hut for a larger winter camping trip. If you want, you can make it smaller. That’s the nice thing about MYOG–make exactly what you want!
Dimensions: 8.5’x8.5′ footprint, 6′ height Weight: 600g/21.16oz (without stakes, with corner and mid point guylines) Total spent: $400-$450 Time taken: Probably 3 whole weekends over the span of 4 months Sense of Pride & Accomplishment: Off the charts
Let’s plan a bit
Alright, enough intro, lets get into it. There are a number of tools you need to do this the way I did (I’ll get into materials later):
A sewing machine that can sew in a straight line
Sharp scissors
A long table (not necessary, but managing the bulk of the tent is something that other tutorials don’t warn you about); I used my parents’ ping pong table
Mini clamps to keep long seams together before they’re sewn, I got mine at Home Depot–make sure they have the rubberized tips
Larger clamps to hold the fabric sheets to the table, mostly when cutting. Could probably use heavy weights for this, but they would have to be very heavy since DCF is quite slippery
A long, straight piece of metal or wood (at least 7.5′ long) to measure and draw the edges onto the fabric
A 90° square to ensure you’re making corners well
If you’ve got the tools, now it’s time to make some decisions about your tent that will affect your path moving forward:
Decision 1: Fabric
I used Dyneema Composite Fabric, aka DCF. It’s sort of the cutting edge of tent fabric right now. It is strong, windproof, waterproof, and ultralight. On the other side, it’s quite expensive and it doesn’t pack down nearly as well as the SilNylon many are used to. (edit Sept 2023: UltraTNT is an excellent, DCF-like material that is coming to market soon, and is about half the cost. Keep an eye out!)
DCF has ultra-strong threads in two directions, laminated by a windproof/waterproof material similar to mylar
These steps will all be using DCF, but SilNylon or SilPoly could be used as well. They are both waterproof and lightweight, and they are much cheaper than DCF. However, they aren’t quite as light or strong and you would have to seam-seal the seams (with a viscous adhesive) rather than tape them, and there may be more fabric-specific things I don’t know about.
Moving back to DCF, you have to choose what weight of DCF you want to use. Heavier DCF is stronger and has a longer lifespan, but the whole point of this is to reduce weight. Most fabrics are measured in ounces per square yard, which I’ll abbreviate as oz/y^2. Personally I chose 1.0oz/y^2 DCF, since I want to use this for many years in all seasons. I think a summer-only tent could use a lighter weight, though I wouldn’t personally go down to the .51oz/y^2.
Here’s a super close up of DCF I took. You can actually see the individual fibers! If you individually open the image, it’s gigantic
Decision 2: Dimensions
I chose a fairly large footprint of 8.5’x8.5′ with a peak of 6′. This is actually the widest I could make it using Ripstop by the Roll (RSBTR)’s fabric, which is 54″ wide (4.5′). The height I sort of estimated, but it turned out a good height. This is very large for a solo trip, and probably even a bit large for a trip with just my wife and I, but I wanted the flexibility it provides.
I will move forward using my dimensions, but I will walk through the math so you can calculate your own. The smaller your footprint the shorter your ‘mid should be, which will be more cramped, but less affected by the wind.
Decision 3: Catenary cut or not
A catenary curve is (roughly) defined as the curve of a rope/chain/string caused by gravity. In tents and tarps, you can curve the ridgelines to make it easier to pitch it tightly, see this tarp.
Pyramid tents have four ridgelines, one on each corner. I felt it was apt to give it a cat(enary) cut, especially because DCF doesn’t stretch like SilNylon. This means that SilNylon will stretch to accommodate any uneven pitches and make it taut, but DCF will just distort the pitch. I wanted to give myself all the help I could get to make a tight pitch. If you decide not to give it a cat cut, it will make it mildly easier and you can skip a few steps. I recommend doing a mild cat cut.
Commit to it
Once you’ve made the decisions above, it’s time be to confident in yourself and commit to the project. You got this! Buy some materials, carve out a few weekends. It took my wife Kadi and I probably 3-4 entire weekends to do this, but much of it was spent deliberating and thinking about how to do things, so I’m really hoping I can take that out of the equation for you.
MATH
Speaking of equations, we can’t buy materials until we know our dimensions. You have to decide on the width and the height to figure out how much fabric to buy. I decided I wanted 8.5′ sides with a 6′ height.
With these two dimensions, we can figure out how big the sides will be. Each side will be made of two fabric panels. We will be working with two different triangles here –one is a theoretical triangle to figure out the dimensions of the panels (labelled B in following pictures), and the other is the calculated real panel size (labelled A in following pictures).
Edges of the same color are the same length, triangles labelled A are same size, triangles labelled B are same sizeSame triangles as the last picture, viewed from above and labelled with calculated lengths (in feet)
We use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the side lengths, since they are right triangles. I am only calculating based on one of the two panels, so side 1 is 4.25′ (half of the 8.5′ total side, labelled in red), and the height is 6′ (blue), so this gives us a side panel length of 7.35′ (orange). Since this is now our actual panel height, we use it to calculate the final corner line to be 8.5′ (green). See the first picture to understand this better, or ask me, this is easily the most confusing part of the process!
edit 2/2022: if you want a larger tent, you can do it this way, like HMG does theirs
Since these are triangles, it makes it really easy to put them head-to-tail to fit them on contiguous lengths of fabric bought on a roll. Each of the four sides takes up about 7.5′ x 4.5′ (I add a 1/2″ seam allowance all the way around). That puts us at 7.5′ per side x 4 sides = 30′ of fabric! This is super tight though, I used the edges of the fabric as the actual edges and I barely had enough room for the 1/2″ seam allowance. If you want to have a little extra fabric you could consider getting another 1/2 yard to make sure, but that’s pretty expensive, so you can just be sure you’ve measured correctly!
Fabric tesselation with a cat cut in the middle, to demonstrate 4 panels on a 15’x4.5′ stretch of fabric.
This works out perfectly for buying fabric by the yard, since it is exactly 10 yards! I believe RSBTR can only do max 25′ individual sections, so if you buy from them like I did, you would have to split it up into two sets of 15′ (or 5 yards) each.
Other Materials
Update September 2021: Since writing this post, I’ve had a good relationship with Ripstop By The Roll, and I’ve been lucky enough to get into their affiliate program. As such, I’ve updated a few of these links to be affiliate links–but this hasn’t changed the content of the post otherwise.
So you’ve figured out how much fabric you need, but there are a number of other things necessary for you to complete the project:
LineLocs: to be sewn into your corners for guylines. Need at least 4, these come in a pack of 12.
Zipper: this comes in white or green if you want! Get the larger #5. I made my zipper 6′ long.
Zipper Pull: certainly nobody would forget to buy these!…would they…? Certainly not me. I used two pulls on my zipper, so it can be unzipped from the top for ventilation or the bottom for general entry.
Mitten Hooks: optional, I will be using them for accessory attachment (Ground cloth, headlamp hook, etc).
Cordage: I got this 3mm cord that works really well with the line-locs. I originally got some Amsteel cord, which you may see in the assembly pictures (black/white), but it was too thick and didn’t work well with the hardware.
Grosgrain ribbon: This is used to make tie-outs, attach the linelocs, and reinforce areas if needed. I accidentally used 3/8″, you should use 1/2″, since the Linelocs are meant to be used with that width.
Thread: full polyester thread, I used black. Got two spools, nearly went through one.
Thicker DCF: to be used for the top cone and various reinforcements (line tie-outs, corners etc), a half yard should be fine. White looks nice.
1″ Double sided tape: This specially formulated adhesive will be used to put a 1/2″ hem all the way around the bottom perimeter of the tent, as well as for making reinforcement patches for all the places needing reinforced with the aforementioned thicker DCF. Strange that Digikey is the best supplier, since they’re an electronics distributor, but it was the best place I could find thicker than 1/2″.
DCF cover tape: Since we are sewing DCF, we’re poking a bunch of holes in it. To get the seams waterproof again, we need to cover them with DCF tape. My original source of tape on a roll has stopped selling it, so I now recommend making your own with the 1″ double sided tape linked above. Buy a yard of .51oz/y^2 DCF to make into strips.
The Process
Alright, I think we’ve finally dug down to bedrock, and now we can start mining for diamonds. It’s time to start making a tent.
I made a paper model before I even got any materials, and it really helped me visualize everything. I think it would be a good idea to do so yourself. I used a free CAD program called QCAD to design this, and it allows you to print nicely to letter-sized paper to cut out. I can send the files if you ask!
paper tent
Kadi and I made a ripstop nylon half tent to figure out how to do the sewing and fine-tune the process, especially because I’d not done any sewing for at least 5 years.
I would recommend doing this mock tent if you’re a novice sewer. If you don’t want to do the whole thing, I think you should do just one of the long, cat-cut seams so you understand the process before sewing into the very expensive fabric you’ve bought. Looking ahead, we use this seam that you can practice here. Plus, ripstop nylon is really cheap most places.
ripstop nylon
Catenary Cut tool
If you’ve decided to do a catenary cut, you need to make a tool to help you make consistent curves. I did this by stapling 8.5′ of foam board (the length of the longest side, see the green edge of triangle A above) to a long 1×2, attaching some string to the corner on both ends, then spray-painting the string to make a mask of the string’s curve. I gave the string a 3″ deflection in the middle.
Marked 3″ down from the middle, then tensioned the string to match the mark. I then spray-painted the string
You can then cut the foam board along the line, and you have a consistent curve form! I think you could use cardstock/cardboard to better effect, since I couldn’t cut the foam board with scissors easily.
that’s me, cutting out the line where the string used to be
Measuring, Marking, and Cutting
Once you’ve made your cat tool, it’s time to start measuring and marking. Sharpies work great to mark the DCF, and you can get rid of the marks after the fact using rubbing alcohol. I didn’t, so you can see marks in some places. I think it gives it character.
I didn’t take a picture of it, but I used a long piece of scrap wood to make a tool for marking my 7.35′ (7′ 4.2″) and 4.25′ (4′ 3″) measurements. I used a large square to make sure I was making 90° corners.
We added an extra 1/2″ seam allowance to the edge of each measurement. That meant we had the exact panel dimensions marked, then another larger triangle outside of that one by 1/2″. You would then cut the outside triangle.
DCF is super fun to cut if you have really sharp scissors. We all know that feeling when the scissors start to glide through wrapping paper; well, you get to do that for probably 30 yards in this project! I would clamp both sides of the fabric I was going to cut, then cut along the line all the way to the other side.
Cutting the outside line
I made mine with two different shades of DCF (you can’t tell, unfortunately) so I had to worry about making sure I had the correct number of right vs. left triangles. If you use the same color throughout, they’re reversible so you don’t have to worry about it.
Once you’ve measured and cut all your panels, you should reinforce the bottom 4.25′ edge of each triangle by taping the 1/2″ seam allowance back onto the fabric with the double sided tape (folding the 1″ tape in half onto itself) to give the very bottom a little extra strength and extra fabric when we sew the tie-out points on.
My practice on a scrap piece of fabric, you will then fold the tape back onto itself to get a finished edge. You could draw another line on the inside edge to make a guide to follow to make this easier
Now it’s time to start sewing!
Here you can see the 1/2″ seam allowance. It’s more important to align the outside edge than the exact boundary line in our experience.
Sewing
We used a top-stitched french seam for all the seams. This was very labor intensive, since it takes 3 lines for each seam, but they’re strong seams and they lay flat.
Kadi helped immensely with sewing and me keeping my sanity. There’s lots of sewing, so we took turns to make it easier for both of us.
These little clips worked amazingly as a pin replacement. We put one every 4″ or so, then would take them off as we sewed up to them.
Kadi sewing up a storm
We sewed the panels on consecutively: we would sew a long cat-cut edge, then a shorter middle edge, then a long edge, etc. Remember that the zipper is going to be sewn onto a middle edge, so at the end you should have two middle edges left to sew the zipper halves.
It is more important to have the bottom edge straight than the top corner (since it will be covered anyway), so start by aligning the bottom edge and clip up from there.
Eventually (hours later), you will sew all the panels together, with the final zipper side remaining. I think I made mine 6′ long, leaving just over a foot left to sew at the top of this seam.
The very tip of ours looked like a mess after all these were sewn up, so don’t worry if it doesn’t look great! We’ll be covering it with a cap later!
Zipper
Sewing the zipper on is next, for which we used the zipper foot attachment for our sewing machine. As before, we used the small clips and removed them as we went. I accidentally sewed mine on inside-out, the teeth are supposed to be on the inside for waterproof zippers. D’oh.
Me sewing the zipper on the wrong way. Dang. Not pictured: zipper foot attachment to sew the seam closest to the zipper
I didn’t take any more pictures of the zipper process, and I apologize. Let me know if you have any questions about it, but I will explain it best I can:
To start, we couldn’t figure out a way to do the french seam for the remaining ~1.5′ of the final panels, so we did a simple double stitch overlapping the two panels above where the zipper will end. We will be taping it on both sides for a little extra strength.
We sewed the zipper on all the way starting at the bottom (both halves still together). We then brought the other side of the tent in, aligned the bottom edge of the tent on both sides, and sewed just the start of the other side of the zipper. After the bottom edge is started, you can ‘unzip’ the whole zipper (pull it apart) and put the first zipper pull on, joining the halves again. It takes a little bit of pushing to get it on, you have to fiddle with it.
After putting the first zipper pull on and zipping it all the way to the top, you can put the second zipper pull on to open the tent for easier sewing. At this point you can clip the fabric to the zipper to keep it in place.
Once we sewed all the way to the top, double check that the bottom lines up. You can take the pulls off and realign the teeth if needed. For the very top of the zipper, I sewed back and forth over it a couple times to finish it, then taped about 2″ on the top to close the hole.
Here you can actually see the color difference! Not while it’s set up though 😦
Tie-outs and Reinforcements
At this point, it’s starting to look like a tent! Give yourself a pat on the back. The hardest parts are over! The tasks we still have are small, but they take up a good bit of time.
There are a number of line tie-outs that need to be made and attached to the tent. First off, there are the 4 corner tie-outs which have linelocs attached. To make these, we first need to make an adhesive backed reinforcement patch out of the thicker DCF. I used a 7.5″ circle that I cut into quarters.
To make this circle, I found it easiest to use a form to draw the circle on the fabric (I used a bowl that was about the correct size). Once the circle is drawn, use it as a guide to tape strips of the double sided tape to the DCF side overlapping the circle. Once you’ve taped all the way over the circle with tight tape spacing, cut out the circle by sliding the scissors rather than chomping them. They can be cleaned off using rubbing alcohol to get any adhesive residue off, but be careful not to cut yourself!
Moving to the hardware, the corner tie-outs are made from 5-6″ of 1/2″ grosgrain ribbon with the lineloc threaded onto the middle. I tacked the lineloc onto the middle of the ribbon by sewing a line back and forth on the ribbon about 1/2″ from the folded center.
This practice corner assembly was a little too short for me, but it shows the seam to keep the lineloc attached. 1/2″ ribbon will fit the hardware better
Next, cut up the 7.5″ adhesive reinforcement patch into quarters and apply to the bottom side of the tent. This will help spread the force out over a much larger area.
I was able to buy a black adhesive patch from zpacks, but they stopped stocking it since I’ve written this. Making your own isn’t too hard though!
Finally, sew the lineloc/grosgrain assembly onto the corner patch. Make sure the lineloc is facing up! I used a squared-x pattern so it had strength all across the seam. I sandwiched the tent between the grosgrain flaps.
Seams in tents, right?? (har har)
The next tie-outs go on the face of each non-zipper panel. I put them in the exact center, but I think they would serve a little better if they were put about 1/3 of the way up the panel instead. You can make your own judgment on that!
You can see the center tie-out on the left panel here, it is actually 1/2 way up! I would go only 1/3 of the way up if I were to do it again.
Next, we will be making the tie-out reinforcements. I like the look of circles, so that’s what I did for ours. Diamonds would probably look cool too. I found a cup in the house that was close to the right dimensions, about 3″ across, and used that as a pattern to mark 4 circles on the thicker DCF.
I would recommend taping a long strip, about 4″ wide (4 strips of 1″ tape) that you can use to draw and cut all the reinforcement patches out of.
I stuck these patches onto the inside of the tent halfway up the panels. If I were to do it again I would put them a little lower to increase the headroom while sleeping, but this works fine.
For the tie-outs themselves I cut about 4″ sections of grosgrain, folded them in half, and sewed them onto the middle of the circle patch with about a 1.5″ squared-x pattern, leaving a small loop for the cord.
Patch stuck on the inside, tie-out sewn through the middle of the patch on the outside.
I also added a few semi-circles at the bottom of each panel with small loops that can be staked down in inclement weather.
I put one final circle patch on the inside of the tent right above the zipper, so I can stake down the front with a cord if the doors are open.
Top Cone
The final piece for this puzzle is the top reinforcement cone. All the other tutorials I found didn’t really have a great looking solution that was stitched, so I decided to go full bonded/taped for the top, since sewing around the top is a serious pain with all the bulk of the tent.
There is an outside cone and an inside cone, both bonded on with adhesive. The inside cone is the one that distributes the force from the center pole to the panels of the tent; the outside cone is just to make it look nice. Because the inside cone will always be pushed in/up, I wasn’t as concerned about it being adhesive, since it won’t fail in the same way as bonded tent panels.
Kadi had the idea to make the inside cone a bit of a rounded cone to mate well with our trekking pole handles, and I thought it was an excellent idea. This was done by tracing a small ~2″ circle in the middle of the black reinforcement patch, and cutting 3 equidistant slices out of the outside circle to the middle circle.
You can barely see the inside circle I drew on with sharpie
To get the fit perfect, I semi-set up the tent and pushed the cut up circle into the top of the tent (without exposing the adhesive yet). The cone formed pretty nicely, so I pinched one seam where it laid, taped it, went back and pinched the next seam, taped it, then repeated again for the third seam.
Once we had taped all the seams, Kadi and I took all the adhesive backing off, flattened all the cone edges we made, and stuck it right up into the peak of the tent. A little nerve-wracking, since you basically get one shot. Be careful!
Next up is the outside cone. This was done by simply cutting a ~7.5″ circle out of the thicker DCF, cutting a slice out of it to the middle, then sliding the one side over the other until it matched the shape of the inside cone.
Finally, we put a bunch of double sided tape on the inside of the cone, peeled off the backing, and stuck it on the outside. We then used single-sided DCF tape to double over all the edges, so wind or water couldn’t get in.
A little bit wrinkled, but I think it looks good!
Taping the Seams
The final step is to tape the inside of all the seams, so that the DCF is waterproof again. Once again, this was made much easier with a long table and a partner. Kadi would pull off about 1′ of tape backing at a time, then I would align it and push it down. This took a surprising amount of time!
And with that, it’s all done! We really want to take it out on its maiden voyage, but as I’m writing this the Coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the world, and it’s our responsibility to stay in the back yard.
It actually ended up snowing a couple days after we finished it, and I spent the night in it. I stayed perfectly dry and warm, until the sun started melting the condensation on the inside. Single wall tents, eh?
Heavy March snow storm, holding up just fine!The walls sagged in a little bit, but that was because the stakes weren’t in deep enough. DCF doesn’t stretch. I didn’t think we would get 3-4″ of snow!Cat tax. Ophelia likes it!
Caveats/still in progress
There are a few caveats with this design. This is my first tent, so I didn’t want to get too complicated. Here are some things that I need to fix, add, or that you could do better:
No ventilation: I don’t have the skills to add hidden vents at the top. If you can figure it out, please let me know. I kinda want to make another one of these
Top-hanging: Many ‘mids have features so you can hang them from branches, etc by having cord or ribbon at the peak. I didn’t think of it in time. You could add that I think by making 4 more circle reinforcement patches and adding them on the seams about 8″ down from the top, then running some cord between them.
Waterproof zipper: I’ve included a waterproof zipper in these instructions, but I did it wrong and put it on inside-out. I will have to make a storm flap. Update Sept 2021: Without the storm flap, I’ve since been in three major hail/rainstorms in the tent, and the water does seep through the zipper, but it runs down the length and drips off the bottom. I don’t think a storm flap is necessary.
Zipper relief: At the very bottom of the zipper, I need to add a buckle that takes the strain of the wind so that the zipper teeth don’t break.
Trekking pole for the peak: This couldn’t handle the pointy end of a trekking pole on the inside of the peak, I designed it with the handle part of a trekking pole in mind. You’ll have to figure that one out if you want to do it differently.
Trekking poles again: To double up trekking poles as I have, you should use ski straps. I’m really intrigued to see if these little guys would work, though we bought the HMG ones because we’re suckers
Center tie-outs: As I mentioned before, I think it would be a little better if my center panel tie-outs were a little lower, so they pulled out more fabric. I think this would make the inside space a little more usable.
I think this could be done with just bonding/no sewing, but it would look very different than this tutorial, so this should just be used as reference. (edit 9/2023: check out this great tutorial video for a similar bonded pyramid tent)
As always, if you were the one who made the tent, you are responsible for your own safety with it’s use. I am making this tutorial to give you knowledge on how to make the tent, but the decisions you make with it are your own and I bear no responsibility.
Green leaves were emerging from the cornfields zipping past. It was June, after all, and everything was excited to be alive again. I was lost in thought and I almost missed my turn back home. Tuesday nights were one of our open nights, and I was thinking about what I was going to do after work.
My phone started buzzing: Kadi was calling. She was home, and wanted to figure out what to do for dinner. We conferred for a bit before agreeing I could grab some squash and mushrooms to saute and put over rice. I love mushrooms, Kadi doesn’t. I was excited.
I got home after going to the store and put the things away in the fridge until we were ready. I’ll probably put garlic and paprika on. Kadi was running around grabbing some things.
She suggested we go for a drive. This was a bit unusual, but we were pretty well mired in our after-work routine at this point in the year, and we wanted to change that.
Kadi got into the driver seat and started driving. She didn’t mention any plan, and I was happy to enjoy the mystery. We headed west. Out of Longmont, into the foothills. Out of the foothills, into the mountains. I wish I had brought my camera!
She drove us up a dirt road, parked at the end, and got out of the car. She sauntered over to the wooden sign, took a look at it, and said “Yep!”. She walked back to her car, opened the hatchback, and revealed our backpacking bags, fully packed and ready to go.
My mind raced: “But…what about the mushrooms…?”
sneaky Kadi!
I think my brain just sort of short-circuited, and the next step it had in the chamber dry-fired. I was so excited! Kadi had planned a whole trip, gotten our bags packed (very impressive for only a one-time backpacker), and gotten us out the door before dark…on a Tuesday!
The weather called for a slight chance of rain, but we had our rain gear. The sun was about to set, but we had our head lamps. Weeknight backpacking is all about being flexible.
Kadi diverged that she didn’t have a plan for distance, and we could just camp whenever we find a suitable camp site. We hiked down through the lush June mountains as it slowly darkened around us. A rain cloud looked at us from above the west ridge.
Everything came together in one moment–an opening in the trees, an opening on the horizon to let the sun through, an opening in the clouds to release the rain. A rainbow greeted us as I threw my bag down to get the wide lens out.
The rain cloud passed, and the sun set. A large field presented itself in front of us, and we figured it was time to relax.
ol’ tried and true
We found a nice site beside the burbling brook we had been following for these two miles. Though we didn’t have mushrooms, our instant mashed potatoes with cup-o-soup mixed in hit the spot.
It was very dark by the time we had finished dinner. We got the bear bag hung, brushed our teeth, used the little boy’s bush one last time, and got in the tent (after taking a couple night photos, of course!)
Looking back, it was a pretty poor choice of campsite. Though the creek added some nice white noise to get your mind off the eerie silence of the night, it also meant we were down in a valley, where cold air congregates. It had rained the day before, and that moisture didn’t have any chance to evaporate in the damp next to the water. Kadi and I were both cold.
Sunrise was a welcome view. We had a few tasks: Boil some water for oatmeal, pack up the tent and sleeping bags, get the bear bag. Oh, one more thing: hike 2 miles back uphill to the car. Though it made for easy downhill walking yesterday, hiking back uphill was a daunting task.
Cute old cabin
The hike out wasn’t actually bad. There was some beautiful dew on the grass, and the morning sun shining through the trees could reinvigorate even the coldest of campers.
fashion
We finally made it to the car. Kadi was working from home that day, but I still had an hour commute after the hour drive back home. I was a bit groggy through the day, but anytime I found myself daydreaming, I was dreaming about finding another hidden adventure in the mountains.
Making an Igloo is fun, but hard! We tried our best!
In January of 2018, Glenn Kadi and I made an Igloo. It was lots of fun, but we didn’t quite do it right. A few weekends later, Kadi and I went up to it to camp in it. Unfortunately, it had collapsed, and we had to sleep in her car.
Fast forward to December 2019, about 2 years later. There had been several large, early season snowstorms that had dumped a fair amount of snow on the highcountry, and the three of us decided to try again.
Cameron Pass is a favorite of ours, since it is out of the way from the crowds of Denver, and it has some nice places to camp. There are some fields south of the Zimmerman lake parking lot that have great views of South Diamond peak, so they provide great Igloo sites, and they’re not too far away from the parking lot.
The first day we arrived, we attempted to start using the Ice Box tool, which is an easy way to make an Igloo. Unfortunately, it seemed that the early season snow was too loose and dry, so we decided to pack out a large area that we could cut blocks from the next day. I didn’t take too many pictures, so here’s a nice one of the hike out:
We camped near the Zimmerman Lake parking lot, just inside the treeline.
We used Glenn’s canvas tent on top of some snow we stomped out (about 2-3′ on the ground at the time). We had a propane heater that we used, but we were sure it was very well ventilated.
After we had eaten dinner, Kadi and I took a drive down the road to the Nokhu Crags overlooks along highway 14. This is a 30 second exposure, really made the clouds look cool!
I think this is Red Mountain, looking to the East. The moon peeked through the clouds for just a few seconds for me to get this shot highlighting it!
The next morning we packed up camp pretty quick to get back to the Igloo site!
Kadi got to work cutting blocks out of our quarry with the machete, while Glenn placed them together with the double saw.
I got to move blocks up from the quarry to the igloo site. Lots of fun!
I really like this picture
Unfortunately, the granular state of the shallow snow made for crumbling blocks, and after making it up 3 layers, the lower blocks couldn’t handle the weight of the upper layers.
We didn’t give up entirely though! Though the Igloo wasn’t going to work, we piled up as much snow as we could get into a giant mound. Sometime this winter we will go back and make a Quinzee, which is basically just a snow cave from snow that you pile yourself. It was probably 5′ off the snow base, so maybe 8′ off the ground when we were done. Someday we’ll be able to sleep up in the snow! That’s all for this post, thanks for reading!
Where Cameron teaches about his DIY Timelapse slider
Intro
Landscape photography has been a hobby of mine for the last half decade+. It gives me motivation to go see places I might not otherwise, and forces me to stop and enjoy them from different angles I would have missed if I had only hiked. This is surely why I was drawn so quickly to timelapse photography. It is just incredibly interesting to me to watch things move in fast-forward, putting motion into scenes that seem static.
I have taken hundreds of timelapse clips throughout the years (which you can check out on my Youtube Channel, search timelapse). With each timelapse setup I’ve gotten better and better at framing the subject, perfecting the settings, or predicting where the cool clouds will go (mostly impossible, but sometimes I get lucky!). Throughout this learning process, there was one thing that I always wanted to try– a timelapse slider.
Timelapse sliders are long rails with motors which have a platform to mount your camera on that will move slowly and steadily across the length of the rail, giving a very cool motion effect. However, professional rigs cost hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars, so I figured I would have to wait. On the prompting of a friend, however, I figured I could put my Electrical Engineering Degree to use, and started looking to make my own.
I’m all about sharing ideas and helping others, so this post will be presented in the context of making your own slider–whether it’s using my plans and ideas, or your own. Enjoy, and I’m happy to discuss any ideas in the comments!
The Start –V1.0
I broke the process down into three major pieces.
The Mechanical system – The rail, sliding mechanisms, mounting points, all physical things
The Electrical system – What kind of motor to use, what electronics were needed to control it, batteries etc.
Firmware – How would I control it? User experience is rolled into this.
So, here we go, starting with
MECHANICAL SYSTEMS
The Rail
The most important part of the rail system itself is smooth motion across the entire track. My first idea was to get a 1″ caster wheel from the hardware store and have it roll across a 1″ square tube, as seen in this super rough mock-up I made.
This had many problems, but I was determined with this idea and I made my first version with it. The side rails were there for lateral stability, with most of the weight pushing down on the hefty caster wheel.
This was a bad system. The most obvious issue looking back is that the caster wheel wasn’t flat–it was rounded.
This meant that it wasn’t stable whatsoever. Even though I was careful to put the center of gravity over the top of the pivot point of the wheel, any motion meant that it would wobble, a terrible thing for timelapses. In the end, this whole idea was scrapped, and I moved on to:
V 2.0
Learning from the experience of my first run, I came back to the project after more than a year. I wanted to be a bit more professional with it, and had learned a bit more about designing 3D models with Blender (I know, still not professional…but it works!).
I started with a true rail system, designing around 1/2″ hollow aluminum tubes (still from the hardware store) placed about 3″ from each other. This gave the platform four stable corners, meaning I didn’t have to worry about it wobbling.
The next problem to solve was making it slide smoothly. I found that the term I should look for was ‘Linear Bearings’, just meaning they’ll be sliding in a straight line. 3D printers use these, and therefore have made these very cheap. Unfortunately they use much smaller rods than my 1/2″ rails, so I couldn’t use those exact pieces.
After searching for a while, I found things called ‘Round Flange Linear Bearings‘. These worked perfect for me, since I could embed them into the platform so I could keep the overall package fairly small. These are what I ended up using, but I would look at skateboard bearings if I were to do this again to clamp on either side of the rail, since they are probably lighter and cheaper.
The tubes are attached on either side to the front and back blocks, which sandwich them between two 3D printed parts to tighten them in and keep them stable. These are the basics of the mechanical systems, so that will bring us to the next major piece.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
Locomotion
This system is sort of halfway between mechanical and electrical, so I feel it’s fitting to transition with it. Looking at existing designs, there are a few different common options: a toothed belt looped with a gear on the motor, a static toothed belt with the motor crawling across it, spooling a string on the motor shaft, or rotating a threaded rod. I chose the first toothed belt option, since I already had a stepper motor, and it seemed to be the most straightforward and lightest option. This option worked well on V1, so I kept it in V2.
The motor I chose is another 3D printing staple, a standard NEMA 17 stepper motor. They have enough torque to directly move the platform without a gearbox, and are pretty cheap online (~$20). At first I attempted to drive the motor directly, but after losing lots of torque due to incorrect timing I decided to simply buy an off-the-shelf stepper motor driver, I think it was the Easy Driver, bought on SparkFun.
The Electronics
In my EE coursework, I used the Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller extensively. I had even already written a program to control my stepper motor, so it was an obvious choice to use this as the base of my control unit. I decided that I definitely wanted different traverse durations so that I had flexibility for different shooting conditions. Here is a hand-drawn block diagram for the electronics:
The MSP430 has 4 inputs: 3 buttons and one potentiometer (knob). Two of the three buttons are limit switches (front+back buttons), which tell the microcontroller when the platform had reached one end or the other. The third button (called the “Go” button) is simply that: when pressed, it starts!
The potentiometer is the adjustable control of the machine, dictating how quickly the platform will move across the rail. The microcontroller reads the analog voltage on the dial, then converts it to 5 discrete steps to determine the speed. We’ll get into this later in the firmware section.
It has 7 outputs: 2 status LEDs, a signal for a transistor that would control the motor, and finally 4 stepper motor control wires.
I initially made this circuit on a breadboard and stuffed it into the end section of the old slider.
It was very messy, and I barely fit everything in! Not to mention that it was all held together by double stick tape…definitely learned a lot from that first one, but looking back at it makes me appreciate how much I’ve learned. Here’s a schematic diagram of all the electronics. Really pretty messy, but simple.
The 12V input from the battery is regulated down to 3.3V with a linear regulator for the digital logic. Three switches attach to GND for the MCU to know they’re pushed, then some headers (on the right side) to solder onto the Easy Driver board. Throw a couple current limiting resistors for the MCU and LEDs, and there you go!
Since I wanted V2 to be much better, I made a custom PCB for it. I hadn’t made one since my Junior year in college, so it was a really good way to get back into it (and sparked my interest in it, since now I make them full-time!). I used a trial version of Altium to make it with through-hole components on a two sided board.
I got the PCB manufactured by PCBWay.com, which I highly recommend for bare boards. I think I got 12 for $20 (including shipping), which is a killer deal, though it did take a number of weeks to arrive from China (3-4 weeks).
The batteries I use are some drone batteries I had lying around, 3S lipo batteries that give 10.5-12.5V volts depending on how charged they are. Though these work fine and give more than enough current, they are incredibly bulky and annoying to charge, travel with, and protect–they will explode if handled improperly. That is why I’m working on another project–but that’s a post for another time. I will post the link here when I finish it!
I bought all the electronics from Digikey for probably around $10, since there aren’t many components. I’ll put a bill of materials together at the end of the post.
FIRMWARE
Because I was using the MSP430, this was programmed in C. I think I’ll just attach the code to this post and talk about the user experience, since there’s only so much explaining of code you can do before just showing it.
When designing the user interface, I wanted it to be simple and fast. The user basically only has two options after switching it on: change the knob, or pressing ‘Go’. The knob is split up into 5 discrete steps within the analog voltage range, currently set to 5min, 10min, 20min, 30 min, and 60min. This number is currently hardcoded into the program and needs to be manually calibrated by measuring how long it takes to traverse the rail, but eventually I want to do an automatic calibration when putting new rails on.
There are two status LEDs that allow the slider to communicate back to the user. One is blue and one is red, and down the road that will probably signify something, but I’m only using one at the moment. When the On switch is flipped, the status LED will flash a few times to signify it is on. The user will then turn the dial to the wanted speed, and press the ‘Go’ button. This will make the LED flash 1-5 times, depending on the speed specified, at which point the user will press the ‘Go’ button again to confirm their decision.
You will be able to change the mode depending on if the ‘Go’ button is pressed when turned on, though I’ll have to revisit this, since I want to have several different modes.
I want to implement a ‘shoot move shoot’ long exposure mode, for longer exposures (>.5s). I feel like I may have to implement a display for this with more advanced options, or perhaps try to make a smart phone app that can talk via bluetooth.
The second mode I currently want to make is a ‘fast’ mode, that can be used real-time for smooth video b-roll. For this I might have it change the movement speed in real time with the dial, so it can be used for dynamic shots.
Bill of Materials
This is a pretty simple board. It doesn’t have many components and I think it needs more, now that I have a bit better knowledge of things like bypass caps and TVS diodes. But those will have to wait until Control board V2, so here’s a list of materials for this version:
For this simple board, the cost of the electronics was about $44. The cost of the mechanical systems came to about $38, so maybe around $80 total. I didn’t factor in the use or filament of the 3D printers I used at my work, so this is assuming you don’t have to buy those pieces.
Conclusion
All in all, this project has been a back-burner project for me for years now. It’s functional, and I even took it to New Zealand with me and got some nice timelapses. However, it is a little finicky, and I plan to improve it to make it easier to use. The biggest problem is the batteries–right now I just use one of my old drone batteries, and they are bulky, hard to charge, and a little fragile. I’ve already developed a board that lets me use my Fuji camera batteries to power it, but I need to make a way to connect them. There should be another blog post on the way about it!
If you found this rambling article with hopes of making your own slider, please ask me anything! If you want to copy this design exactly, I would be flattered, and can help you however you need! I didn’t put the full firmware in this post, but I can provide it if needed. I can also post the 3D files on thingiverse if desired.
Thanks for reading this far, and have a happy 2020!
Quick weekend trip to Moab results in fun adventure!
Martian. Stark. Wide-open. Barren.
Wooded. Green. Mountainous. Home.
There are many differences between Utah and the front range of Colorado, even though they are just a 6 hour drive apart. It’s these differences that lead us to go there, to see the strange, to explore the unknown. And it definitely shows us something unexpected every time.
The short-ish drive means it’s close enough for a weekend trip, so Kadi and I decided to do just that in the middle of April. Unfortunately, Colorado had other plans, and a snowstorm closed Vail pass on I-70, forcing us to stay put in Breckenridge for Friday night. We almost turned around at that point, but decided to keep going with a shortened plan, and it was definitely worth it.
We headed directly to Arches on Saturday, and though there were crowds, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I think it was after the Spring Break rush, but before school is out for the summer. Arches never disappoints, and I can’t wait to go back. I really want to do some backcountry exploration there, but I don’t exactly know where to start.
We hung out and hiked around for a bit while the sun inched toward the horizon. I wanted to go to Delicate arch around sunset, but the timing didn’t quite work out that way. So we hiked to Delicate Arch as dusk turned dark, and there was still a crowd there. Someone did some pyrotechnics in the middle of the arch, and though I can’t condone the act, I just happened to have the correct camera settings to capture it.
The next trick of the trip was finding a camping spot, since dispersed camping isn’t allowed near Moab, and the regular camp sites are reserved often months in advance. One site that is pretty far out of the way is a camp site called The Ledge, which is where we were lucky enough to find one spot open.
After sleeping in and making pancakes, we packed up and went for a couple small hikes on the way back to town. When we got to town, we went to the most glorious little diner that I have ever been to, a place called Milt’s. It is a tradition to go there anytime I go to Moab, and I would recommend it to anyone going there themselves.
After Milt’s, we headed to an arch neither of us had seen before, Corona Arch. I know that it used to be a popular swing arch (people would rig up climbing ropes and swing below it), but it has since been disallowed. Nonetheless, we just wanted to hike to it!
There are a few steep sections on the hike there, including this steel ladder, so overall it is an excellent hike.
Definitely not too cheesy ❤
Corona arch was beautiful, and larger than I thought it would be! It is surrounded by cliffs, one side going up and one side going down. It’s really mind-boggling to try to figure out how it was formed over millions of years without falling down.
After our hike back out, we started the long drive back home. Though it is lame to head back to the real world, trips like these always leave stars in our eyes leading us back to the unknown.
P.S. I made a short video about this trip, watch it here!
Every year at the end of July, my extended family stays in some cabins in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado for one week. This year I could only go for part of one weekend, as I was saving vacation time for a 2-week trip to New Zealand in the fall. As such, there was only time to do one significant thing. I decided climbing a 14er was the best bang for my buck!
As with any 14er, starting early is a necessity. We woke at 5:15, and drove another hour and a half to get to the trailhead around 7-7:30. Along the way we saw a moose or two, and stopped a couple time for pictures.
We decided on the Grizzly Gulch Trailhead because I thought it was the easier one. I was wrong, the other one (a class 1, 5.5mile round trip hike) was up the road another mile and a half or so. That just meant that we got the whole 8-mile trail to ourselves!
The entire hike up was full of wildflowers and lush underbrush, a rare sight in Colorado otherwise.
Along with the wildflowers, animal life was all around, mostly in the form of Marmots or Pika.
One of the members of the group was having issues with the altitude, so I stayed lower with them while the other 3 went ahead and summited. So, I didn’t get any pictures at the top. But I did get some nice timelapses while we waited, and pictures!
When the rest of the group met back up with us, we saw a nearby snowfield and did the only logical thing…
…used an emergency blanket to sled down! It was super fun (and super safe!), and it cooled us off for our descent. Which wasn’t the best, because clouds rolled in quickly afterwards, threatening the daily afternoon thunderstorm. We heard a couple rumbles of thunder, but it never did rain on us while we were on the trail.
On the way back to the cabins we stopped in Lake City for the traditional reward for completing a 14er: The Ice Cream shop! Even though it was around 44F and wet at the time, the treat was too much to pass up!
Don’t tell my scoutmaster, but I got lost, even with a map. I had gotten up early to scout out a place that I want to go Backpacking at some point, but in my haste, I turned onto the wrong trail. The day was ruined!
Clearly ruined. Only joking of course! I had been planning to hike up to the Willow Lakes, an area that my boss had recommended and that looks splendid! However, I had other plans, and took the path to Willow Falls, between Red Peak and Buffalo Mountain, just north of I-70 at Silverthorne.
I had recently gotten a new lens, so I used it almost exclusively on this hike! It’s a Samayang 85mm f1.4, meaning it is a bit longer of a lens than I normally used, with a very shallow depth of field, meaning I can get some great bokeh (blurry foreground/background) with it!
It was a peaceful hike, following South willow creek up the valley it carved to the saddle between the peaks around it. The waterfall itself was long and cascading, meaning I couldn’t figure out how to take a good picture of it.
I only saw one other group on my way up, and they were on their way down after spending the night in the saddle. I saw a group of deer too, I assume they had camped the night as well, and these guys:
I hike about 4-5 miles up, then turned around to get back to town for lunch.
Someday I’ll make it back to Willow Lakes, but I’m glad I made a wrong turn so I could explore somewhere unexpected!
Thanks for reading, let me know your favorite pictures!
June is a great time of year, the beginning of summer. the weather is warm, the plants are thriving, and everything feels fresh. This June was super busy, so I’m just going to throw all the adventures together into one post. Enjoy!
Vedauwoo
At the end of May, I had finished my ‘Adventuremobile’ with help from Kadi, and we were excited to adventure in it! Basically it was a sleeping platform in the back of my pickup with storage underneath, made of 1/4″ plywood and 1x12s. So our first camping trip with it was up to the giant boulder-field that is Vedauwoo in Wyoming!
It took some getting used to the short ceiling, but it is so nice to be able to park anywhere and camp there! No need to find a spot to setup a tent, or find a place that doesn’t have any rocks (especially in this localle). It let us spend time just exploring!
RMNP
So I don’t actually remember if this was before or after Vedauwoo, but I’ll just throw it in here! I had a quick jaunt up to Rocky Mountain National Park one weekend just to relax and take some product photos for a friend, who gifted me the hammock if I took some pictures for him. Just a couple pictures in this set, but The Loch is one of my favorite places in the park!
(I don’t actually know who that is)
Rifle Falls State Park
The next adventure was going to Rifle Falls State Park, West of all the ski areas, and just north of Rifle, CO. I had heard good things about it, but we were leaving pretty late after work on a Friday, and I was worried about finding camping around the area.
Luckily, I have a pickup that can camp anywhere! So we pulled off the side of the road on some BLM land North of Vail to camp there, and enjoy the newly emerging Milky Way!
The next day we made it to the falls, and they were much larger and cooler than I was expecting! There are 3 different main falls in the area, with a few smaller ones around the peripheral.
One thing that we weren’t expecting was all the caves behind the falls! You could hike along the cliff for probably a half mile or so, and all along there were caves of various sizes that could be explored!
There was only one that went deep enough that it was pitch-black, but there were several others that you had to crawl through or duck into!
While we were there, we went down the canyon to the Rifle Mountain Park, a Mecca for climbers. There are just sheer cliffs on all sides in the canyon, which lends quite well to people who like to climb sheer cliffs. It was really fun to watch all the climbers doing their thing as we hiked along the cliff base for a bit.
With that, we headed back home to have some time with some family in town. Thanks for reading, let me know what your favorite picture was!
So I’ve decided go back and recount the adventures of this year, since I want to put my pictures out there rather than let them clutter up my (now 5) harddrives.
I have my first set from April, when Kadi and I drove to Phoenix to visit her parents. I hadn’t been to Phoenix before, and I love Utah/Moab, so I was excited to have the opportunity to drive through!
We started driving Friday night after work, which put us in Moab around 1:00am. While setting up the tent in the cold spring night (even in April!), we saw a rare kangaroo rat jumping around, but I couldn’t get a picture.
The Ledge campsite was a nice place, not even close to full even in April, which was a pleasant surprise. There was a valley close by with some cottonwoods rustling in the small breeze, housing an orchestra of crickets that would have kept us up if we weren’t so tired from the drive.
Utah is basically Mars on Earth. So many red rocks!
Another reason we chose this campsite was because there was an arch nearby that I wanted to investigate: Funnel Arch. It’s not a long walk from the road, but it does require some class 4 scrambling up a gulley, but once at the top it’s smooth sailing!
Funnel arch is a pretty small arch by Utah standards, but it had some great views of canyons all around! Next time I’m down this way I want to setup a rappel from the top, since I could see anchors bolted in at the top.
As with many things, getting down is a bit more of a challenge than going up, and we butt-scooched our way down for many parts.
After we got back into Moab, I had to take Kadi to a legendary place to get lunch–Milt’s! If you’re ever in the area, Milt’s is a diner-style burger joint that has more character than you can take in with just one sitting. It’s closed on Mondays though, so beware!
Next stop on the way south was Wilson arch, right off the highway. It’s quite a bit larger horizontally than the last arch, but not too much higher vertically. I had rappelled off the side of this arch the last time I was there, so it was fun to reminisce about that!
After this we had a pretty long drive down to the border of Arizona, probably 4-5 hours. On the way we saw Mexican Hat, a fun rock formation that looks alot like, you guessed it, a sombrero. I was driving at the time, so I didn’t get any pictures of it, unfortunately. However, we also hit Monument Valley along the way!
Arizona is also Mars on Earth. Most of it at least, though it’s got more shrubs than Utah. I really never realized how many different types of red rocks there could be until I drove through Arizona, but that makes it a very interesting drive. And I saw a Saguaro cactus for the first time in my life! Once again though, I was driving, so I decided not to endanger the car and pull my camera out.
It was really pleasant in Phoenix, I think the high was around 84F when we were there, meaning we could be outside without burning up! It was really cool to me to see all the dust devils throughout the desert plains surrounding the city, and everywhere was air conditioned (similar to Florida).
We stayed for a couple nights, but since it was just a 3-day weekend, we had to move on fairly quickly. We decided to go back through New Mexico this time, and check out some of the things along the way! This included Petrified Forest NP, which really reminded me of the Badlands of Teddy Roosevelt NP (alas, I’ve never been to the badlands of SD).
I had never driven through Albuquerque, and it was an interesting drive through even more different types of desert! But it was getting late and we had work the next day, so we had to make up some time we had lost by wandering around PFNP, so no more extraneous stops. Except…maybe two more.
The sun was just setting as we were going through Trinidad in Southern Colorado, and it really lit up Fisher’s Mesa, so I had to stop at a conveniently placed rest stop to grab this.
Finally, 30 minutes down the road I had to make one more stop to catch the sunset over the Spanish Peaks. After this we drove to Colorado Springs to grab dinner with family, then finally made it home at 1:00am!
cameronfedde 
