With summer in full swing in Rocky Mountain National Park, it’s time to take advantage of the perfect conditions to head out on a hike to one of your favorite locations. As a photographer, I plan my hikes and destinations based on where I think the most potential for a good image is or a location I have not visited or photographer successfully.
While I have favorite locations in Rocky that I try to visit a couple of times a year, it’s just not physically possible to always be able to visit and photograph locations each year. If you want to keep growing your portfolio on a given location, you have to constantly push yourself to get to new places or try again at locations you may not be happy with previous results.
Fern Lake is one of those places for me. One of my favorite hikes in RMNP is to hike the nearly eight miles from Bear Lake down to Moraine Park. This hike takes you past some of the most iconic scenery in Rocky Mountain National Park while also brining you through alpine and sub alpines zones of the park which adds nice variety. A lot of people like starting in Bear Lake because once you arrive at the top of the Odessa Gorge, its pretty much all downhill from there.
It’s been a few years since I’ve made any attempt to photograph Fern Lake. Both the Fern Lake Fire in 2013 and the East Troublesome Fire in 2020 damaged the areas around Fern Lake. I’ve had both Spruce and Fern Lake on my revisit list but have been too busy photographing other areas of the park to get a chance to get back.
Yesterday seemed like a good day to revisit Fern Lake for the first time in quite a few years. While we have had quite a bit of wildfire smoke around, it appeared the smoke should be manageable and that we had a decent chance for some clouds around sunrise to add some interest to the scene.
I headed out from the Fern Lake trailhead a little after 4:00 AM and was at Fern Lake by 5:20 AM. For those who have spent a lot of time in Rocky Mountain National Park, Fern Lake often holds great memories. It’s a great spot to fish, It’s a great day hike from Bear Lake or Moraine Park and some of the most accessible backcountry campgrounds are located around Fern Lake and Spruce Lake. Because Fern Lake is near the middle point between Bear Lake and Moraine Park, its a great place to stop, eat lunch and just hang out on a rock and take in the sights.
While Fern Lake is all those things to visitors and hikers in Rocky Mountain National Park, I find it to be a very difficult and frustrating location to photograph. It’s often breezy here, there is lots of dead trees from the fires and there are very few locations where one can get a clear unimpeded view of Notchtop, The Little Matterhorn and Gabletop Mountain. Trees and snags abound and trying to keep the viewfinder clear of distracting objects at Fern Lake is tricky. If the winds are gusting as they were yesterday, only the outlet of Fern Lake offers a sheltered enough spot to possibly provide a reflection. Take this all in account and one see’s while photographers will often end up at Lake Helene, Odessa Lake or even Cub Lake as opposed to photographing Fern Lake.
So I had low expectations when I arrived at Fern. The winds were gusting and the main part of the lake was choppy. I found one small area near the outlet where I could just squeeze in a reflection and keep the viewfinder and edges of my composition clear of dead trees, and other visual distractions. It was clear at sunrise, but luckily about 20 minutes or so after sunrise some nice clouds started to form and pass over Gabletop and the Little Matterhorn. The wind settled a little bit and the early morning light added some pop and color to this mountain scene.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the image. Sometimes you can only photograph what the location gives you, there are no secret compositions or ultra wide angle lenses that will make it any more dramatic. In this case, Fern Lake was Fern Lake and that was just fine with me and the millions of other visitors to Rocky who hold a special place in their heart for this iconic spot.