After eating lunch at Ed's on Saturday, we drove to the Bear Lake trailhead and circled the parking lot a few times before finding a spot. Though the trails were covered with 4 ft of snow, it was well packed, and we managed the 1 mile hike to Dream Lake with just microspikes. After snapping the photo below, we had the opportunity to meet David Andrus of Andrus Photography. David made it very clear that I WAS NOT supposed to promote his wedding photography business because he and his wife are very busy... but here is their website... www.andrusphotography.com . I think that their photographs are fantastic, but lets be clear, I am not promoting their work... because I am not suppose to.
After hiking down from Dream Lake, we decided to scout our next shoot location at "The Chappel on the Rock". The Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel, located in Allenspark, CO and the Saint Malo Retreat survived a fire in 2011 and withstood a major flood in 2013; though, the rest of the retreat did not fair so well. I am going to dig a little bit and see what the state of its recovery is. I will post any updates that I have here on the blog.
Though I did snap a few shots of the chapel on our scouting visit, I wanted to come back at sunset to get a different light on the magnificent structure. In the meantime we milled around the downtown area of Estes Park and then returned to the chapel just before sunset. After an excellent meal and beer + ice cream at Grubsteak, we drove up to our campsite at the Moraine Campground and curled up on the mattress in the back of the pickup for what would end up being a cozy, but windy night.
Well before sunup we drove back to the Bear Lake trailhead and hurried up to Dream Lake at a blistering pace to take pictures of the cliffs of the Hallett Peak ridgeline illuminated by the rising sun. Though the sunrise wasn't bursting with color the way that I know it can, the sight was beautiful, and the experience was well worth the early morning trip. We felt so invigorated that we continued to Emerald Lake, but stopped there and left the rest of the journey to the Hallett Glacier for those better outfitted for mountaineering. Maybe next time.
