Grand Mesa - Land O' Lakes Overlook
Delta, CO
Grand Mesa is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, rising over 10,000 feet and containing more than 300 alpine lakes. The Land O' Lakes viewpoint on Grand Mesa Scenic Byway provides sweeping views across the mesa's lake-dotted plateau. Fall brings extensive aspen color across the mesa's slopes.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- golden hour
- Crowds
- Moderate
- Shot Types
- widelandscapereflection
- Best Seasons
- summerfall
Author's Comments
The first time I drove up onto Grand Mesa I did not understand what I was looking at. The road climbs through scrub and pine and then simply stops climbing, and you realize the mountain has no peak in the conventional sense. It just opens. A flat green world ten thousand feet up, scattered with lakes the way a meadow is scattered with stones. The Land O' Lakes pullout is where the geography finally makes sense. From here the mesa reveals itself as the strange thing it is, water held in pockets all the way to the horizon, the dark green of spruce broken by silver flashes wherever the light catches a surface. Late September is the week to come. The aspens on the slopes below the rim go gold in waves, and the contrast between that warm color and the cool blue of the lakes above is the photograph this overlook offers. I prefer the last hour before sunset. The light comes in low across the plateau and the lakes pick it up one at a time, lighting and dimming as clouds move. A wide lens makes sense here, but I have also worked with something longer, pulling out single lakes and the aspen stands that frame them. Both approaches have their reward. The byway closes with the first serious snow, usually sometime in October, and the window for fall color is narrow. Watch the forecasts. Drive up on a weekday if you can. This is not a secret place but it is a quiet one, and the scale of what you are standing on takes a while to settle into.
Gallery
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