Estes Park Elkhorn Avenue and Downtown

Author's Comments

September is when this town becomes itself. The aspens above town are just beginning to turn, the summer crowds have thinned by half, and the elk come down from the high country to do their business in the most absurd places imaginable. I have watched a bull bugle in the parking lot of a fudge shop. I have seen a herd of cows graze the eighteenth green while golfers waited it out from a respectful distance. The photograph everyone wants is the bull elk against the mountain backdrop, and you can make that photograph here, but the more honest image is the one that includes a streetlight or a shop window or a minivan in soft focus behind the antlers. That is the actual story of Estes in the rut. Work the golden hour and stay through dusk. The elk get more active as the light goes, and the Big Thompson running through downtown picks up the last warm light in a way that flatters everything near it. A long lens is not optional. Two hundred millimeters minimum, and longer is better, both for the animals and for compressing the Stanley Hotel against Lumpy Ridge from the streets below. The Stanley is its own subject and rewards a separate visit. From the road that climbs toward it, late afternoon in October, the white facade goes nearly gold against the darker pines behind, and the mountains stack up beyond in layers. This is a busy place. Accept that. Make your photographs early or late, walk the side streets along the river, and remember that the elk were here first and will be here long after the t-shirt shops have changed hands again.

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