Sprague Lake – Rocky Mountains National Park, CO

After a stressful & very painful first half of 2018, I was happy to make plans for a trip to Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado with several of my Tampa photography friends. So in Sept we flew out to Denver and   then drove up into Estes Park. We rented a house up on the side of a big hill with a view of this lovely city below us. One of the places we wanted to photograph was Sprague Lake! This is a classic Colorado lake surrounded by mountains. The trick was to be there before sunrise on a morning when there was no wind!

This is one of those places where the sun turns the mountains a bright orange color as it is first rising. With smooth windless water the colorful mountains are reflected perfectly!

Our first trip to Sprague Lake was our most successful but we did not know it, that day! All I remember is getting there just a bit later than we had planned and having no idea where the best place on the lake would be to get the result we were after. I started at one spot and quickly realized I was not on the best side of the lake.

So along with my camera gear, including a tripod, I actually ran around Sprague Lake to the other side! Now, as a Florida girl, at a much higher altitude than I have ever been, that was not an easy run to make!

But I made it to a good spot to get some beautiful images before the sun rose up too high and we lost all that wonderful orange color.

We went back several days later. This time I was in a better position as we had arrived a bit earlier. Oh! so early that I almost hit an elk in the dark as I was driving along the winding road to Sprague Lake! But just after we arrived the wind picked up. The wonderful reflections we got the first trip were no where to be seen with all the waves in the water. Oh! Well!

Timing is Everything once again came into play!

I highly recommend an early morning visit to Sprague Lake when you are in Rocky Mountains National Park, it is worth the run! Watch out for those elk!!

For these and additional images, please check out my gallery!

That is all for now!

Lynn