Vedauwoo -- Land of the Earth Born Spirit

[Colorado CJ]

(These were shot with my Nikon D600, Samyang 35mm F1.4 lens and Samyang 14mm F2.8 lens.)

Always looking for something to do on the weekend, I decided to head up to Vedauwoo for a weekend of camping, photography and hiking/bouldering.

Vedauwoo is located a few miles east of Laramie, Wyoming. It gets it's name from the Arapaho, meaning "Land of the Earth Born Spirit". They say that the indians used to visit the area for vision quests and named it Vedauwoo because of you can sometimes hear talking/whispering in the rocks. This "talking" is probably caused by wind blowing through the strange shaped Sherman Granite boulders that the place is famous for.

There are only a few actual trails in the area, but the whole landscape is open to explore. Be sure to bring good shoes though, and have a very good sense of balance if you want to head out onto the rocks to make your own trail. Vedauwoo is world known as a hotspot for climbers/boulderers.

Well, enough of that. Lets get to the photos.

Here is my camp. You couldn't ask for a better spot, right in among the massive boulders.


3-Aug-2013-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


Later that evening I made a campfire, waiting for it to get dark enough and hoping the clouds would move out so I could do some astrophotography.


3-Aug-2013-2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


At around midnight, the thick, low scudding clouds finally started to break up. There was still some moisture in the air, so the lights of Cheyenne were still visible in a long exposure, even though Cheyenne close to 40 miles away. Here is a 30 second exposure using my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens set to f4. The rocks are lit by the dying embers of my campfire.


3-Aug-2013-3 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


Early the next morning, after some breakfast and campfire coffee, I headed out to do some bouldering/hiking. I didn't get any shots of the bouldering because my camera was in my pack (needed my hands free).


3-Aug-2013-4 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


3-Aug-2013-5 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


3-Aug-2013-6 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


3-Aug-2013-7 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


3-Aug-2013-8 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


If you are ever heading down I-80 in Wyoming, I'd really recommend you stop at Vedauwoo, even if you only have a few minutes to spare. It is a very neat area with very strange rock formations, hoodoos, balancing boulders, etc...


PS. On my way up, I passed through a pretty decent storm. The storm later spouted 4 tornados and huge damaging hale.


3-Aug-2013-9 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr


I had to pull over for a while when it finally hit, wondering if my sunroof or windshield was going to be shattered. Here's a photo as the hail started lessening, a few minutes later it rained buckets.

(this is hale, not snow. It was around 8" thick on some parts of the highway)


3-Aug-2013-10 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed the view!

[mo]

Another great story,thanks for posting.That storm looks amazing and I thought we had some big hail storms here, yours are just plain scary.

[kds315*]

Amazing images + story!

[Orio]

Breath taking and perfect photography.

[philslizzy]

Beautiful

[56 DIN]

somewhere between amazing and stunning or both of it

[mzzyhmd]

Man you make me wanna go to Colorado. Damn these are awesomest!

[pavko]

Sky without light pollution - simply beautiful. I wish I could lay down on grass and see such a view every night.

[Attila]

[SonicScot]

Great place and great photos