Fall River Road Panorama, Rocky Mountain National Park
Photo copyright Jim Doty, Jr.This
360 degree panoramic view is from near the top of Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. The one way dirt road, uphill all the way, begins at the west end of Horshoe Park and winds its way up the Fall River
valley to the tundra and ends at the Alpine Visitor's Center on Trail Ridge Road. The drive up Fall River Road and back down Trail Ridge Road makes a nice day long
trip with stops along the way and at the Alpine Visitor's Center. It can be done in half a day if you are pressed for time. On the left side of the photo you are
watching the road as it comes uphill. On the right side of the photo, just above and to the right of the snowfields at the top of the ridge, you can just make out the Alpine Visitor's Center. This is easier to see in
the larger version
of this photo. The image is digitally stitched together from 12 separate vertical photos taken at a focal length of 17mm with a Canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens on a Canon
20D camera body. The 35mm film equivalent would be a 27mm wide angle lens. The full size image is a 160 megabyte file that prints out at 10 x 60 inches at 300 pixels
per inch. The software used to stitch the image together is The Panorama Factory from Smoky City Design. It was able to automatically stitch this image without any manual
intervention. I highly recommend this software.To give you an idea of the amount of detail in the full size panorama, the image below is a 100% magnification,"actual pixels" crop of the hiker on the far
right side of the original panorama. He is barely discernible in the photo on this page and a little easier to find in the larger web version (link below). The four hikers in the distance are the tiniest of dots in the
larger web sized version of the photo.
A much
larger version of the panoramaA QTVR movie version of the panorama
August 21, 2005
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