Echo Park where the Yampa and the Green River join is a very remote area today. That wasn’t to be when prospecting began on a dam site there that would have drowned the area for hundreds of miles up stream and would have made a reservoir hundreds of feet deep exactly when I made this image. Steamboat Rock marks the area with an eight hundred foot monolith that is Echo Park’s; famous landmark. Named by John Wesley Powell for the amazing echo one’s voice can cast as it seems to come back from all directions, there was a time in the 50’s and 60’s when all of this magnificent wilderness would have been lost!
Found in the Solitude and tranquility that seem to flood the senses here, where at high water times just the extreme opposite would certainly be the effect instead, is in the southwestern corner of Colorado and within the boundaries of Dinosaur National Monument. This gem is usually experienced by rafters coming from either river.
This is where the conservation/environmental fight over dams in the west found its epicenter!
The short story is that Echo Park dam would have been the linchpin in the plans for dams all up and down the Green and Colorado. The struggle to “Save Dinosaur” was long and hard fought. David Brower and the Sierra Club made the family films of outings here over the many years they visited the area a mainstay of their presentations and protests. In the end almost 80 groups had banded together and finally won. Unfortunately the Glen Canyon dam followed in short order to the dismay of all those involved. It’s said that Brower in-particular blamed himself for this and it took a heavy toll on him for some time to come.
On this day, standing in the shadow of the cliff that is Steamboat Rock I was overcome with gratitude.
In the image here as afternoon light flooded the cliffs on the left I choose to set a composition that relied on the comparison with the high cliffs on the left bank which were dwarfed by Steamboat Rock on the right. I also let the reflection speak for its scale. I found no need to include all of it rather instead I felt that the river reflection should include as much as possible to tell that story. However I realized that anything wider than 24 MM would eliminate the detail I liked so much. It was what drew me to the composition in the first place. The solution for me was the Canon 24 T/S. I made two frames. The first was the top portion and would have been a fine image on its own. I then shifted the lens downward and captured the great reflection. The two were merged later in post-processing.
