Piney River Ranch and Upper Piney Lake

Author's Comments

The road to Piney is a commitment. Twelve miles of dirt that climbs out of Vail and keeps climbing, past aspen groves and meadows that feel further from the resort below than the mileage suggests, until the trees open and the Gore Range arrives all at once. The East Gore Cliffs do not announce themselves. They simply appear, jagged and grey above the lake, and you understand why people drive an hour to sit on this particular shore. Late September is when I keep returning. The aspens along the lower stretches of the road have started to turn, and at the lake itself the light goes long and clean by five in the afternoon. Upper Piney is a reflection lake when the wind cooperates, which usually means the first hour after sunrise or the last hour before sunset. The peaks invert themselves in the water and the photograph almost makes itself. Almost. The challenge is composition - the range is so dominant that a wide lens can flatten what should feel monumental. I have had better luck working slightly longer, isolating a section of cliff and its reflection, letting the scale come from the detail rather than the sweep. The trail to Upper Piney Falls leaves from the lake and is worth the walk if you have the legs for it, but honestly, I have spent entire afternoons just at the shoreline and not felt I was missing anything. The ranch rents canoes. A canoe on a still alpine lake at golden hour is its own kind of photograph, and one I would not turn down if the water cooperates.

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