When it comes to hiking and photography, there is often a narrow window of opportunity when best possible conditions exist. What I am writing about is that window where the snow has mostly melted but the water is still running, filling streams, creating waterfalls and fire season has not yet started.
This year that window started late June and is still going strong. While I still have the time and smoke from fires has not filled the air - each week I try and get a good hike in, and hopefully come back with some images to share.
The first hike of the season was an easy hike, according to locals, around seven miles round trip and 1,700 feet of elevation gain over approximately 3.5 miles. The trail itself was not very interesting to start with, but by the end, it was more scenic and progressively steeper.
At the end was lower “Cabin Creek Lake”, a typical alpine lake in the Sawtooth Mountains. Crystal clear blue water, surrounded by mountains, and fed by waterfalls; hard to imagine a more picturesque scene!
Normally I would plan on spending the night so I could recover from the hike and chase the best light. This time however, I only had time for a day hike, so it was hit-and-run photography. Over the next few hours, I looked for the best compositions under the conditions available and came away with the shot below.
Upper “Cabin Creek Lake” is just a short distance above this one, but I just did not have the time or strength to photograph that one. Next time I will plan an overnight and see what else I can come up with.
The next adventure was to “Kane Lake”. This hike I planned as an over-night trip where I could really work on setting up the best compositions and wait for the best light.
The hike in was brutal by my standards, the last mile or so required careful observation to pick up the faint trail, cross over boulder fields, and finally climb up a rock wall to reach the lake at the end. Was it worth it? Absolutely!
After a three-and-a-half-mile hike over rough terrain and an elevation gain of 1,800 feet, I was greeted by the most stunning scene I have seen in many years. Seven waterfalls were cascading down from surrounding cliffs with peaks over 11,000 feet in the background. These waterfalls emptied into a lake with an amazing turquoise color.
I captured images from mid-day through late morning. Typically, shortly before sunset or shortly after sunrise provides the most flattering light for landscapes, but in this case - you needed bright sunlight to show off that beautiful water, and that is what allowed me to capture the photograph below.
There are hundreds of lakes and over a thousand miles of trails in the mountain ranges near my home here in Hailey, Idaho and I will likely only be able to get to a fraction of them in my lifetime. So, do I need to choose wisely which ones to attempt to visit? Probably not :)