As we drove east and approached Vail Pass, the rain started again, this time much harder. As we proceeded up the mountain, the rain fell harder and harder and, as our altitude neared 10,000 ft. (3000 M), the rain changed to blobs of sleet.
With no where to drain, the copious amounts of water occupied the depressions in the pavement made by millions of large trucks over the years. Hydroplaning was frequent which caused us and everyone else to slow considerably.
Traffic was light most of the way, but by this time, it seemed as though everyone was ending their holiday weekend early due to the weather and heading toward Denver and points east. Traffic was now pretty heavy. Not many tractor trailers, but lots of SUVs. Compound that with the rain and water on the road, and I will call it "interesting."
The rain continued pretty hard and, again, as we approached the next mountain, this one with the Eisenhower Tunnel, the rain turned to blobs of sleet. Entering the tunnel, we were hit with silence and a dry road. It was cold enough that snow still occupied the shoulders of the roadway on each side of the tunnel.
I haven't mentioned the temperatures up to now, but leaving Grand Junction the air temperature was about 48 degrees F. As we proceeded east, the temperature slightly dropped until the rain started and with the increase in altitude going over the passes. By the time we got to the top of Vail Pass, it was 39 F.
Back to the drive east....
As we exited Eisenhower Tunnel, surprise! Slush on the road and really heavy sleet! Looking out the side window of the vehicle, it was coming straight at us at about a 45 degree angle. I'll call it cutting sleet as that is what it would have felt like if you were standing in it. Fun, fun, fun! However, as we drove down the mountain the sleet turned back to a heavy rain with some intermittent small hail.
We drove on to our next destination happy to be out of the weather. No mishaps and no close calls. Thank you!
No photography today. Tomorrow, we again, continue east.
Since I didn't make any images today, I took the opportunity to, once again, as I do nightly, check and clean my equipment. I can't stress to you enough the importance of a daily check and cleaning as well as CHECKING THE SETTINGS ON YOUR CAMERA! How many times have you taken your camera out and it was still set for something you photographed the last time you went out taking pictures?
Decide on what you will call "The Standard Settings" and return your camera to those settings each evening. The standard settings are what you want them to be, depending upon the type of photography you do. They may include base ISO, single focus point, aperture priority, daylight white balance, single advance, raw plus jpeg, etc. Whatever it may be, in your head you know what they are and that is your starting point everyday. You will know, without having to look, exactly what settings are on the camera when you first go out and can then change them to fit the situation. Get in the habit of resetting your camera right after you clean it each evening.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better travel day.
Thanks for looking.
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
All content on this blog is © 2014 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or image
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