It’s the landmark. You can see it from most places along the rim if you are touring the area. There are overlooks that feature it. Steamboat rock and the confluence of the Yampa and Green rivers, where it rests, can be reached by road from the rim in about an hour’s time if the roads are in good condition. Since I have never had the pleasure of running either river, I can only imagine the thrill of seeing this monolith for the first time as you reach the area.
However, I came to realize as I spent the day and evening there that most never have the chance to see this wilderness at all, and even those that do most likely do not get to spend as much time as I did. I’m always taken aback, when in most places, how fortunate we are in this day and age to be able to experience these places so easily. I can only imagine the time and energy it took early explorers to even get into this wilderness. As I walked along the riverbank I thought of being the first person to learn that a simple shout would echo like like thunder in all directions and then to have been present when the suggestion was made to name this area Echo Park!
That’s the upside. The down is that this area is bitter cold in the winter and just plain hot in summer. The river habitat provides trees and the immense cliffs shade at certain times but overall combined with the intense hordes of mosquitoes, that I would guess are present in all summer months, mid-day was uncomfortable, to say the least.
As afternoon sidelight took hold of Steamboat Rock and the buttes that surround the river I opted for a composition that would show the scale of this mammoth slab of stone. It wasn’t easy! Each and every setup that I tried offered something and yet eliminate elements at the same time. I realized that I needed a tilt/shift lens to correct the barrel distortion created by having the 800 foot face so prominent in the image. By moving a standard lens so abruptly upward this would certainly render it as falling away creating that distortion. I photographed it with both my 17mm and 24mm t/s. I liked both.
The 17mm had such great depth and encompassed the entire bend of the river. The 24mm had better detail. In this image I combined two images shot with the 24mm to capture some of both elements.
