The Two Guides Toddler T-Shirt

For generations, Longs Peak played a part in the seasonal migrations, hunting practices, and cosmology of Ute and Arapaho Indians. The Arapaho called Longs Peak and Mount Meeker the “Two Guides,” or nesótaieux, because of their physical prominence and role as landmarks for the entire region.

Longs Peak is the highest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. It is one of the fifty-four 14,000-foot peaks of Colorado. Colorado has 53 Fourteeners, including Longs Peak. In mountaineering terminology, a Fourteener is a mountain that meets or exceeds an elevation of 14,000 feet above mean sea level. Mt. Meeker at 13,916 feet is not a Fourteener.

Some digital effects were applied to this original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Ordered images will not contain the FAA watermark.

Image copyright 2019 Jon Burch Photography

Photography is all about using light to capture the emotion and beauty of a fleeting moment. For me, this adventure began with a single spring image using a small Kodak film camera of a freshly watered central Kansas ditch and has come full circle using modern digital techniques. My first camera was acquired by trading an ancient Royal typewriter to a fellow college student who was desperate to finish a term paper. It was a long time ago and that camera was my passport to an art that has fascinated me ever since. I owned and operated a professional studio in central Kansas for 20 years and moved to Colorado in 1994. Part of the studio's early success came from creating outdoor portraiture using controlled lighting...