I’ve had a lot of wonderful painting adventures, but so far in my plein air career, nothing has topped traveling to Abyss trailhead. Funny enough, I had to convince myself to go the night before and just about called it off. I had read about Abyss pass being the peak fall color viewing area in Colorado on multiple platforms, as well as over social media, and I knew it was going to be an absolute madhouse. My painting friend Julia also let me know about this during our plein air competition in Georgetown, just on the other side of Guanella pass. Looking at a multiple-hour drive and the knowledge that I needed to be there before sunrise to get a spot was a lot. But I got a random burst of excitement about it the night before, and I knew I would regret it heavily if I didn’t take the jump and at least try. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it right.
The weather was already getting rather cold by this point, especially when the sun went down, so I had the knowledge that I could set up most of my gear in the car on the morning of once I had secured a parking spot. I threw most everything into my truck the night before so it would be ready to go, woke up around 2:30AM, got gas, and hit the road. It’s actually quite enjoyable to drive some of the mountain roads at night and watch the world come to life as the sun starts to rise. For this particularly early drive, I didn’t get to see a sunrise until I was already parked, but it was lovely. Depending on where you are in the Rockies, the tree coverage and density changes quite extensively. This entire area is heavily forested in the White River area, with large patches of aspen groves and sprawling meadows. I was up high enough to see clouds pass at eye level in front of me, with some pretty incredible shots through the trees as seen below.
If I had been even ten minutes later than I was, I would have not been able to get a spot at the trailhead. Parking filled up incredibly fast,, and it was clear lots of people had camped at least partially overnight in the main trailhead lot. I parked just down the hill in the first parking dug-out area and only had to walk a short ways up the hill. And funny enough, this was a small blessing in itself! Just off the side of the road was the most gorgeous alpine river I have ever seen in my life. I am a bit picky with the rivers I paint, and this one checked every single one of my boxes. The deep pools, picturesque rapids, diagonal fallen trees - and the sun was rising directly in front of it, illuminating the rocks and water while driving the deeper shadows even further to create a stunning masterpiece of value contrast. The rocks themselves were bright yellow, something I don’t believe I’ve seen before in Colorado. I still need to do some more research on how this is created and what kind of minerals it might be. I debated stopping right there and painting the river, but I am ultimately glad that I decided to complete the hike.
While I sat in the car, I created a small sign to hang off of my painting gear with a pocket for business cards, and I should’ve brought way more than I did. I ran out of business cards (70+ handed out) around halfway through my painting. I almost headed out right at 7 AM, but was met with a brutal cold outside and quickly realized that I would need to put my underlayers and gloves on, but still might not be warm enough. The mountains heat up quickly when the sun fully dawns, so I waited until around 8 AM to actually start my ascent.
Even directly from the trailhead, there was a massive golden aspen grove and several small walking trails that would’ve been beautiful to paint. I had seen photos of a meadow online, and though I couldn’t remember everything about it, I decided to make it worth my trip and see if I could find it. To be honest, it’s a bit of a grueling hike until you reach the first meadow. Hauling painting gear, even though it’s light, through a forest with not much scenery was disheartening and I began to wonder when the meadow would pop out and I’d come across the first viewing area. I even began to wonder if I would realize it when I was there, if it would just be a random grove, and whether it would be worth it, which seems so silly now because as soon as I parted through the end of the trees, crossed the makeshift bridge, and entered the first/main viewing amphitheater, I was absolutely floored. From all directions, stunning mountains rose up with massive groves of beautiful, sunlit aspen trees and darker pines. At that point, I didn’t even care what was up ahead and figured I’d go ahead and paint. The full hike took me around an hour and fifteen minutes moving at a pretty intense pace to get as much time as possible.
Plein air painting is funny, because you don’t necessarily have to be very good in order to draw attention. Just the mere fact of an artist choosing to haul their painting gear up a mountain and paint something from life seems to be enough to pique most people’s interest and draw them in. If you can capture your subject effectively and make it a visually interesting painting, well then…
While most people were looking at the west hillside, with a pretty stunning array of yellows, I took interest in a distant peak that was outlined by dark pines, plenty of fall color, and more visually interesting/compositional details. There was a lovely purple-blue hue to the shadows in the mountain face, with lime green and cad yellow trees and some really nice warm reds and cool purples in the mountains that immediately drew me in. The valley itself was filled with dark purple shrubs, likely with leaves that had already fallen, surrounded by more yellow aspens. Purple and yellow, and orange and blue, are all complements - so I worked to push these relationships as much as I could as I painted.
Some very lovely people all got photos me painting, videos of the work, and have since reached out and looked through my Instagram account. This has kept me a bit more up-to-date as I try and get the video edited and posted by the next day for anyone who came to my account after viewing it. I’ve never met so many absolutely kind people and I’m so grateful for every interaction that I had that day.
I managed to complete the painting on location and decided to add a few clouds after the fact and perfect the sky a bit more, but didn’t touch it much outside of that. This was another piece I wanted to make sure remained fresh and not overworked in the slightest. I had four sweet people reach out to me to purchase and sold the painting the next day.
I currently work as a property manager in my day job. This job has taught me so incredibly much about business, life, interacting with people… I’ve truly developed so many amazing life skills through it. But it’s days like this that push my heart further and seem to push me to realize that this is, in fact, an acceptable career path along with my studio work, and that it is having an impact on the people around me. I’m hit with the realization that my ability to spread God’s love is much greater painting out in nature. Plus, lack of movement on a day-to-day basis as someone who loves to hike, walk, bike, swim… is tough. Plein air painting is truly the intersection of my greatest material loves.
The hike back down showed me just how far I had hiked up, and by the time I made it back to my truck there was still a line of cars waiting for me to leave. I made it out in relatively good time, around 4-5 PM, and gave a very happy vehicle a great parking spot. I passed by the beautiful river and know I will come back at some point to paint that. I’m currently doing a studio piece in the meantime.
Below is the finished painting with the frame chosen by the buyer, and It’s truly one of my favorite plein air pieces that I’ve ever done. I sold a piece of my soul with it, lol.
