Dream Lake

Author's Comments

The first time I walked up to Dream Lake I arrived in the dark on purpose. The trail from Bear Lake is short by Rocky Mountain standards, just over a mile, but in October at four in the morning it feels longer than it measures. I wanted to be standing at the eastern shore when the first light hit Hallett Peak, and I was, and I understood immediately why this lake has the name it does. The peak is what makes the photograph. Hallett rises almost vertically from the far end of the water, and at sunrise it goes through a color sequence that I have never quite been able to predict - some mornings a slow pink, some mornings a sudden orange that lasts ninety seconds and then is gone. The lake at 9,900 feet holds a stillness in the early hours that you do not get later. By nine the wind comes up off the ridge and the reflection breaks apart, and by ten the trail is full. Winter is the version of this place I think about most. The lake freezes solid and the surrounding pines hold snow in a way that flattens the whole scene into something close to monochrome, and Hallett above it all looks less like a mountain and more like an idea of one. Microspikes are not optional from November on. Neither is a headlamp if you want the light I am describing. Come in summer for the wildflowers along the lower trail and the easier approach. Come in fall for the golden larch and the cold mornings. But if you want the photograph that this lake actually offers, come before the sun does.

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