This past weekend I spent a couple of hours at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It’s been a while since I paid a visit. I arrived 40 minutes after the gates were to open but found the gates locked. Another photographer and I waited for about 30 minutes before they showed up and found they had changed the time to 7:00 AM for the Fall season. I walked the Lake Ladora tail and was so enthralled by the colors of the cottonwood trees. As some of you know my eye does go towards trees, usually isolated ones. I’ve read where photographers need to know their subject so I’m in the process of learning more about these cottonwood trees. I’ve always wondered what the pioneers saw as they crossed the Great Plains on the Santa Fe or the Oregon Trail. Most of the short grass prairie had few native trees so they often went for a long time without seeing any trees. The prairie was frequently seen as a very foreign and hostile environment to people from the forested east. No trees meant no wood for cooking. Dried bison dung was used for cooking fuel instead! No trees also meant no shade, which can be very precious on a hot day in summer.