Emerald Lake

Author's Comments

The trail from Bear Lake gives you three lakes for the price of one, and most people treat the first two as waypoints rather than destinations. I think that is a mistake, but I also understand the pull. Emerald is the one that pulls. You climb past Nymph with its lily pads, past Dream with its quiet shoreline, and then the trail steepens and turns rocky and you arrive at something that feels less like a lake and more like a room. The walls are what do it. Hallett and Flattop rise almost vertically from the far shore, and the basin holds the water like a cupped hand at ten thousand feet. Come in early July if you want snow on the ledges. The contrast between lingering snowfields and the deep green of the water is the photograph most people are after, and it is worth the early start. Morning is non-negotiable. The east-facing walls catch first light and go warm against water that stays cold and dark, and by mid-morning the whole basin flattens into shadow and even tone. I have been there at noon and I have been there at seven, and they are different places. A wide lens for the basin. A longer one for the snow patches and the texture of the rock. Detail shots reward patience here more than people expect, because the scale of the walls fools the eye and the small things go unnoticed. Sit for a while before you start working. The lake is not going anywhere, and the light will tell you what it wants.

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