Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers & Photographers
sharing the outdoor experience through words and photos
By Jack Olson
I sure hope you’re planning to attend the RMOWP conference in Rocky Mountain National Park in September. It’s stunning, inspiring, magical. That’s just a few adjectives. Supply your own when you come. I taught up there for about a dozen years at the RMOWP photo workshop and I figure I’ve been in the park two hundred or more times.
Continue reading Rocky Mountain Dreamin’Text and photos by Jack Olson
Drop—-drip—drop. We’re on top of the Continental Divide in Colorado. I love the Continental Divide. My mind capitalizes it. For one thing, it’s high. You can see for miles and miles. In winter in Colorado it collects oodles of snow. Oodles.
By Jack Olson
Listen. Carefully. What do you hear? As I write this I can hear the motor in my refrigerator freezer humming. It does that from time to time. I live in an apartment building and there are all sorts of noises from the many functions of the building. You might call it “building noise.” I can hear a little traffic on Broadway and someone putting trash in a dumpster in the alley. None of this is bothersome. A person gets used to some sounds, and they don’t interfere with life going on, or even thinking.
Continue reading The Sound of SilenceArticle & photos by Jack Olson
I came west for the mountains. Mountains, mountains, mountains. Who knew that a third of Colorado was plains? I would surely never head out east. What’s out there?
By Jack Olson
It seems like it was ages ago. It seems like it could have been last year. About half my life has passed since I made the incredible trek to Mt. Everest. Continue reading One of Those Trips of a Lifetime
By Jack Olson
My friend, Joanne, can be so sweetly devious. Continue reading “You Know, Jack…”
Article & photos by Jack Olson
“There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.”
~ Robert Service
I had a beloved, eccentric speech teacher in high school who first enthralled me with thrilling tales of the Yukon. Continue reading A Yukon Dream Come True
Article & photos by Jack Olson © 2016
Long before the Pilgrims landed, before Jamestown, a thriving civilization flourished atop a high mesa in the southwestern region of what would eventually become the United States. Continue reading Ascending an ancient civilization – Acoma
Article & photos by Jack Olson
In June 2000 RMOWP congregated at Bryce Canyon for an annual conference which we planned some years before. We wanted to choose a location which would be spectacular, and memorable, for this auspicious year. For those of us oldtimers who attended that one it turned out to be one of the most exciting conferences in our history. Let’s return to that conference to show you a bit of what you can expect at the 2016 conference. Continue reading Bryce Canyon National Park 2000 Revisited
article & photos by Jack Olson
What is even better than returning to a place you love? Returning with your wonderful, extraordinary, fun nieces. We did it, we really did it. In 1988 I traveled to Europe with Amy (age 21) and Melinda (age 18). Amy had one more year in college to finish; Melinda had just graduated from high school and was moving on to college. It was a perfect time to undertake our “trip of a lifetime”. I think we all know there are many trips of a lifetime, but this was their first one. Continue reading Passing the Torch