Wilderness Pinhole Photographs

Lower Mertensia Falls, Wild Basin, CO, originally uploaded by Mark James Photography.

Mertensia Falls sits below Eagle Lake in Wild Basin and drains into North St. Vrain Creek. To get this picture, and others, I timed my arrival for late in the afternoon so that the sun wouldn’t be directly on the water. The trick was leave myself enough time to hike out while there was still light in the sky. The area is fairly difficult with steep cliffs, loose rock, and no trails to follow. Even with a flashlight, it would be dangerous to hike out in the dark. I carefully monitored the time from when I left camp to when I arrived at the falls and then made sure to stop photographing to allow for the return trip. In this case, I arrived at Mertensia at 4 P.M. and could only stay to 6 P.M.

During my hike, I had a potential Aron Ralston encounter with a large boulder. For those who don’t know about Ralston, he was hiking in a place called Blue John Canyon in a very narrow slot when a boulder rolled and pinned his arm against a rock wall. After six days and no help in sight, he decided to amputate his arm and save himself. My situation was not nearly as dire but none the less caused a moment of concern. I stepped onto a boulder that suddenly shifted causing me to fall backwards, downhill, and then rolled over my leg. As I went to pull my leg out, the boulder settled deeper into the ground. A couple more tries and the boulder settled even more. I took a moment to think about things, look at the sky, look at my watch, and note the fact that no one knew where I was. The solution was quite simple; I just had to take my backpack off, get a good angle on the rock, though I was upside down, and roll the thing off my foot. The incident left me very aware of how someone like Ralston can end up in such a situation. I also was thankful that God watches over me and I escaped with little more than a cut on my leg and a bruised ego.

After leaving the offending boulder, scrambling over loose rock, and fighting my way through krumholtz, I finally arrived at the beautiful Mertensia Falls. Mertensia is the name for a delicate little plant commonly known as the mountain bluebell. In fact, it was my ancestor, Edwin James, who discovered the plant while on the Major Long expedition of 1820. Edwin was a botanist and turned over most of his collection of plants to fellow scientist John Torrey. It was Torrey who gave the bluebell the beautiful name Mertensia.

The pictures seemed to match my impression of the waterfall; soft, delicate, ethereal. My two hours went past in the space of a moment. The sun was setting, the light failing. I pushed past six o’clock not wanting to miss an opportunity. Reality won out and at 6:15, I said goodbye to the lovely Mertensia to begin my journey back to camp. The hike was uneventful and, for the record, I arrived at camp just as the last glow of light faded from the sky.

Little Rock Lake, Sept. 2005, originally uploaded by Mark James Photography.

I took only a few photos of Little Rock Lake deep in the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park. Good luck to any brave soul with a heavy backpack that desires to experience this remote location! More on this later…