Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Lost Lake, Kebler Pass, Colorado

Click here to hear an audio report from the field.

On the last stop of the Fall Colors 2008 Tour, I just couldn’t stay away from Kebler Pass, it’s like an old friend or coming home.  I must admit that I was a little worried driving in last night that I was too late as at least half of the leaves have already dropped.  So my tactic was to camp at the Lost Lake campground and hike the Three Lakes trail for sunrise.  This is a trail that I hiked way back on my very first Fall Colors tour in 2005 and where I got the popular “Lost Lake Mist” image.  I decided that I wanted to revisit these places as I am much further up the technical learning curve now and perhaps I could get some better images.

As I set out this morning the snow on Mt. Beckwith was glowing brightly and the reflection of Mt. Beckwith on the glass-smooth Lost Lake Slough was perfect, but I pressed on for Lost Lake itself.  The night was cool and there was lots of frost on the ground and not a cloud in the sky, so I knew that there would be little color in the sunrise and that my strategy looked good.  I got up to Lost Lake, huffing and puffing after a couple of hundred foot climb, and unfortunately there wasn’t any mist rising off the lake and the scene was unremarkable.  I did take some pictures, since I was there, and then pressed on for the falls feeding into the lake.  The waterfalls were ringed with ice and some of the green moss peeked through the rushing water and I stopped down my lens to get as long an exposure as possible in order to blur the water.  I am really hopeful that picture turns out.

I then moved on down the trail to Dollar Lake, which was nice but did not really excite me for a picture, but then I followed a little side trail and came upon a sweeping overlook of the entire Kebler Pass valley with the dike and Ruby Peak in the background.  The light was very harsh and from the side and a lot of the Aspen trees are bare, not really a good time for a picture there, but definitely a good spot for late afternoon or evening when the Aspen are peaking.

I figured I was done and started on the trail down the ridgeline back to the campground and was stunned as I came upon scene after scene that I wanted to capture.  The trail was still not in direct sunlight yet and the warm glow lit up the millions of aspen leaves carpeting the trail and forest floor and each scene looked more inviting than the last.  As I was taking the picture above I was yelled at by a protective chipmunk and I could swear that he was throwing stuff down on me.  The wonderful grandeur and beauty made me want to keep moving down the trail to see what was around the next corner, but at the same time I didn’t want it to end, because I know that from here I will start my journey back to Denver and civilization.  I wish that I could bring all of you out here to experience these wonderful moments that happen to me, and I think that my pictures capture part of that.  Kebler Pass is still my all-time favorite place to view aspen in Colorado.