Estes Park From Mt. Olympus

This particular shot became a very popular view since it seemed that it was being taken and printed by many of the popular

photographers during the early tourism years of Estes Park. WT Parke postcard company was the most popular, but others such as

The Wiswall Brothers, Enos Mills, etc. were selling photos of this particular view.

 

The site where this photo was taken is on private property, and this author is very grateful for the permission to climb up to

Mt. Olympus to retake it. It is half way up the west side of the mountain on a brief plateau known at "the ship's prow".

It shows the Estes Park Valley before the Thompson Reclamation project dammed the Big thompson River into what is popularly

known now as the Estes Lake. The lower part of the river flows in the exact same locations as can be seen. But the upper area is now

an active boating and fishing area, with trails and small picnic areas where one can take in the beautiful scenery. And of course it is the site of

one of the two active golf courses in Estes Park.

 

As you can see, the contemporary photo does not match the historical one perfectly. I had only two opportunities to take this shot

due to the fact that it is on private property as I mentioned before. And as usual, our eyes are fooled by the overall perspective and I was

off a bit. But as you can seen the rock formation that frames the photo is the same. I was off on t he distance to the rock formation,

and that is what made the distant details appear further away.

 

While I was up there, a quick and hasty storm started to brew. The clouds overhead turned the light quality into a purple hew.

Folks ask me what kind of filter I used to get those colors, but the fact is that I didn't use any filters - the colors you see here

are the ones that were present when I shot this photo.

The historical photo was taken ca. 1903, and the contemporary was shot in June 2002.

(Place mouse over the picture to freeze the current view)