A frozen river, with its clear water breaking through the white ice, all of it glistening in the sunshine, is a special perk of Colorado winters.
Only 15 minutes north-west of Fort Collins, the Poudre Canyon offers stunning views of the Cache la Poudre River cutting through the hills and mountains and flowing underneath and around the ice. During the sunny Colorado winters, it’s not difficult to find the perfect day to enjoy the visual drama between water and ice, sunshine and shadow, steep rock walls, big boulders and small pebbles. You can get so taken in by the views that you might not even notice at first that you’re actually walking on the river – or on the thinning layer of ice separating you and the gushing water right below your feet.
Needless to say, I went out to the Poudre Canyon a few times this winter already and captured these images of the frozen river for you during several outings with Miriam or Scott and always Whiskey. The video shows a collection of some of my favorite places along the canyon: Diamond Beach (my own naming), Grey Rock Trail Bridge, Diamond Rock, and “that place we went with Erica, you know the one, where the road crosses the river” (I really need to come up with a new name for that one).
By the way, the water in the river is very low right now, typical for winter. It’s going to be above most of the boulders again once the snow melt happens up in the high mountains. I just sincerely hope that it won’t become so much to lead to flooding again like the last few years…
The song in the video is “Second Nature” by Jason Shaw of Audionautix. He has made this and many great tunes available via a CC BY 3.0 license. Thank you, Jason!
For another view of the Poudre Canyon and the frozen river, check out these videos (make sure to watch in HD):
The Narrows, Poudre Canyon (Time Lapse) – In A Colorado Minute (Week 197)
Drive through Poudre Canyon, Colorado, in the winter – Time Lapse (extended version)
