Glacier Gorge, Lake Helene and Fall Colors

Dawn over Glacier Gorge and the Glacier Knobs
Blue Dawn in Glacier Gorge. Just prior to sunrise, this Krumholtz tree is silhouetted agains the deep blue sky and pre-dawn light. Technicial Details: Canon EOS 1Ds III, 24mm TS-E f3.5 II
I just finished up with a couple of very productive days in Rocky Mountain National Park. The seasons are definitely starting to collide and change and Rocky is very much moving from summer into autumn.

This is without question my favorite time to photograph Rocky Mountain National Park. For the most part, you still have all the lakes open and free of ice, but the aspen tree’s and underbrush are starting to change and the Elk are starting to rut presenting photographers with plenty of varied subjects to photograph.

Sunrise at Lake Helene, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Lake Helene at sunrise.Yellow and red leaves from the underbrush float on the surface of Lake Helene in the forground. Technicial Details: Canon EOS 1Ds III, 17mm TS-E F4
Photographing fall colors this week was not in my plans. While it’s not abnormal to see and aspen tree or two changing colors around Labor Day, I have to admit I was quite surprised to find as much color change as I did occurring on many of the hillsides.

I think for the most part, the typical third and fourth week of September will provide photographers with plenty of great opportunities to photograph fall color in Rocky Mountain National Park, but there are certainly going to be some good opportunities to capture fall color in the next week or so. Our dry summer appears be causing some of the stressed trees to turn golden earlier than usual.

My plan was to photograph Mills Lake and Lake Helene if conditions looked right. The clouds I was hoping for at Mills Lake never materialized, but everything fell into place at Lake Helene yesterday.

I’ll start transitioning over to some fall color photography here a bit sooner than I expected. In a nutshell, the Bierstadt Moraine has little to no change. The area around Bear Lake itself is spotty with some decent patches of color. Above Bear Lake it’s also spotty with some patches of decent color. So while there will be plenty of golden color to photograph in the next few weeks, one can certainly find some color in the park already.