The Yampa River is formed from the confluence of the Bear River and Phillips Creek just east of the town of Yampa in northwestern Colorado. From Yampa, Colorado, the river flows north through Steamboat Springs, where it turns abruptly west. Near the small town of Milner the Elk River joins the Yampa which continues west past the town of Craig. It is joined by the Little Snake River in Lily Park, in Moffat County, Colorado. Finally, the Yampa meets the Green at Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument, near the border with Utah.

Just before the two rivers meet, a bend in the river called Harding Hole can be viewed from the Yampa bench road high above the river. This is one of many camp areas used by rafters and makes for a thrilling overlook. Depth and scale were hard to image let alone photograph. The bright blue of the afternoon sky certainly was a problem and I used a warming polarizer to both cut glare and give some definition to the the clouds. I didn’t have deep shadows to contend with but everything in my composition seemed to have a cyan cast and the warming filter helped considerably.

The composition was broken up intentionally with a long row of sage and anchored on both sides of this panoramic image by juniper trees. I felt that showing the river bend without a break of some kind and being this high above flattened the image and took some of the mystery away that I was trying to add.

In the end it’s a postcard. However I’ve always thought that making a postcard is OK, as long as you make a good one!