Sunrise to Sunset

I didn't intend on getting up early, it just happens. I do like sunrises and this winter I avoided a few spectacular ones because I was too lazy to walk to the ridge.
And it was terribly icy and cold.

However there was no excuse Sunday morning.
Our temperatures had been warm and overnight the temperatures had fallen into the 20's. The gravel roads had firmed up.

I warmed up the car and off I went. I didn't go far, but the car makes it easier to get more than one view of the morning sky.

I was able to do a hand held panoramic of the land at the end of the road.

Then I zoomed in towards the old farm buildings and the silo with no top.

I took off towards the other side of the ridge and parked next to a neighbor's cattle pen.

Indeed, the colors seemed worth getting up for.

I got back to the house and had coffee with my husband before the sun peeked over the horizon. Once the sun did make an appearance, the color of the sky was washed out.

We had coffee and I asked Rich if he'd ever been to the Kickapoo Dam, or if he was familiar with that trail. He said he hadn't ever been there, when he was riding the land it would have been a rather boring trail for the mules.

I told him I was thinking of checking it out for a place to go watch the sunset. I wasn't sure I wanted to go alone so when my neighbor Lauren came down the driveway with some fresh eggs, I ran the idea past her.

She mulled it over. I told her that the trail from what the Kickapoo Reserve site map indicated, it would be rather short and fairly easy.

We agreed on a time and I went back to doing farm things. I watered the stock tanks and we fed some large bales out to the cattle.
Buster was feeling lazy and posed for me...

Rich worked in the shed and I wandered out there and took some shots of him working. I've asked him to be my model numerous times. He never seems to mind me pointing the camera at him.

I made a batch of chocolate chip bars and then decided to take a quick nap before our late afternoon adventure.

We headed out to KVR and started our hike.
It was a rather nice one too. Not hard at all.

It didn't take us very long to get to the dam. The project was halted in 1996, you can read about it for yourself. History of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

I'm happy that this land is here and we are able to do so much on it. How lucky can we be to have so many parks, reserves, and county parks in our county?

Very lucky I say.

The sunset was not spectacular as I'd hoped for. It was rather dull, however the kids enjoyed running and playing until twilight set in.
Then we passed out flashlights and started back down the trail towards the Administration Building.

My conclusion is that this could be a great area to watch either the sun rise or the sun set. And it is always somewhat of a crap-shoot to find out if the skies will bring you something fantastic.

Note: The sunrise shots were done in 'sunrise' or 'sunset' mode on the camera. Most cameras have them. However I find that the colors are often overblown and unrealistic. I prefer to use the manual setting on the camera to get truer colors.
The panoramic shot was done in a sequence of four shots. I was able to bring some of the cropland back from the dark shadows.
A slight underexposure of a sunrise or sunset will also give you brilliant colors.