Poudre Lake And Milner Pass

The headwaters of the Cache La Poudre river while a beautiful location, can be a trick one to photograph due to a lot of man made intrusions and the fact that Trail Ridge Road runs along the north side of the lake. A silhouette of the lake on a morning in which smoke from forest in the Pacific Northwest colored the sky enabled me to capture an image of Poudre Lake while excluding many of the distractions. Technical Details: Canon 5D Mark III, 16-35mm F4 IS L
The headwaters of the Cache La Poudre river while a beautiful location, can be a trick one to photograph due to a lot of man made intrusions and the fact that Trail Ridge Road runs along the north side of the lake. A silhouette of the lake on a morning in which smoke from forest in the Pacific Northwest colored the sky enabled me to capture an image of Poudre Lake while excluding many of the distractions. Technical Details: Canon 5D Mark III, 16-35mm F4 IS L
If there is one particular combination that can put a damper on landscape photography it’s clear skies combined with smoke from wildfires. While it’s always about working with the light to compliment your subject, I find it to be quite difficult to work with a hazy atmosphere caused by smoke, especially if the skies are clear.

Unfortunately, late in the week smoke from large fires burning in Washington State managed to drift over Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. The smoke was thick and seemed to have embedded itself right along the Front Range which meant I would need to scrap my plans to hike into the backcountry and remain flexible.

In the predawn hours I drove up over Trail Ridge Road hoping I might be able to get up and away from the smoke embedded below. No such luck would be had, the smoke was still thick and plentiful on Trail Ridge. The smoke was thick enough so that my headlamps on my truck almost appeared as if I was driving through fog.

I was starting to be resigned to the fact that this just might not be my morning when I noticed some think waif like clouds forming in the skies. This gave me a little more hope as I figured I just might be able to get some color in the sky aided by some of the smoke particulates.

Down towards Milner Pass I headed. Either Poudre Lake or Lake Irene would be my destination depending on where the clouds were situated. Driving by Poudre Lake and over Milner Pass the clouds were looking quite nice. An orange glow to the north and east hung over the outlet to the lake.

A quick stop at Lake Irene was all I needed to see that Poudre Lake held much better potential with the clouds setup favoring the headwaters of the Poudre. Arriving back at Poudre Lake the skies were taking on colorful hues. I’ve always found Poudre Lake to be difficult to photograph because Trail Ridge Road runs right along the outlet to the lake and it’s difficult to keep it from becoming a distraction in an image. The conditions this morning were perfect for a silhouette of the lake which easily remedies the issue of having the road in the photograph. So even though I could do without the smoke and haze the conditions allowed me to create an image I previously had little luck pulling off.