Blue Lakes Trail

Author's Comments

The first time I came up through the meadow toward the lower lake, I was not prepared for the color. Turquoise is the word everyone uses and it is technically correct, but it does not capture how unreasonable the water looks against the dark rock of Sneffels rising behind it. Glacial minerals, the science says. I have stopped trying to explain it and started trying to photograph it honestly, which is its own problem. July is the month. The wildflowers in the meadow below the lower lake reach a kind of riot in mid to late July, and the lake itself holds its color best in morning light before the wind comes up and breaks the surface. I leave the trailhead in the dark. The road in is rough enough that I do not love driving it before sunrise, but the alternative is arriving after the light has gone flat and the reflection has gone with it. The middle and upper lakes are worth the additional climb if your lungs will have it. The trail switchbacks hard above the lower basin and gains another fifteen hundred feet, and the upper lake at nearly thirteen thousand sits in a cirque so direct beneath Sneffels that the mountain feels closer than it can possibly be. I have made the wide shot from the lower lake more times than I can count. The photograph I am still chasing is from the upper basin, early, with the north face still in shadow and the water holding that impossible color in the foreground. Bring more layers than you think. The wind off the snowfields in August can feel like October.

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