Moonset at sunrise is always gorgeous
in the Rockies. It's
sometimes hard to judge what day will work best because of the
towering peaks, but we hit this one just right. Although we had
planned to photograph sunrise from Redfish Lake, we decided to
try Little Redfish Lake
as we drove in this morning. That turned
out to be a very good choice. We parked the Explorer in a parking
area right along the road and only had a short walk to reach
the lakeshore. The lake was mirroring the peaks and the moon
as it descended. We arrived early enough that we could shoot
each stage of the sunrise as it painted the peaks. The biggest
challenge was switching back and forth between the lenses to
catch the entire scene, then the mid-range image of the moon
setting over the mountains, and finally the long telephoto shot
of the moon as it arched downward.
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Petit Lake was our second stop. Many of the best images I had found
on the Internet were taken from the Petit Lake area. Petit Lake
was still glassy when we arrived, but it was obvious that all
the lakes and amazing images were taken much higher in the Sawtooths
behind Petit Lake. Most hikers take the shuttle boat on Petit
Lake to give them a 3 mile head start. Unfortunately, the shuttle
boat doesn't run this late in the season. Alice and Saddleback
Lakes were definitely beyond our reach this trip. Petit Lake
was still nice, but it didn't compare with the scenery in the
images of Alice Lake.
Altura Lake was up the third canyon that leads into the Sawtooths. It was the least impressive lake and didn't have the same high and wild feeling to it that the other lakes had. The shores were tree covered ridges and reflected in the lake, but there wasn't any sense of alpine ruggedness that Stanley and the Redfish Lakes had.
From Altura Lake, we continued up the highway to Galena Summit. From the summit overlook, we could look back north and see the entire valley stretched out before us. On the other side of the pass, the highway switchbacks down toward the town of Ketchum. After a few miles down the southern side of Galena Summit, we turned around and headed back to camp. It had been a very good morning of shooting.
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