Photographing Wellington Lake
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For a photographer, you cannot beat an alpine lake with 360 degree access at 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, and that’s just what you will get at Wellington Lake.Getting there is not easy.
You will have to enter via one of two dirt roads, each of which is about 10 miles long, filled with potholes, and prone to becoming muddy. Bring your 4×4 if you have one!
Once you are there, however, it is photographic heaven! There is a dirt road that runs just about all around the lake. To the east and north there are green, pine covered mountains. To the south west there is a unique, rocky cliff known as Castle Rock. The lake itself is quite clear, and is small enough that you can just about always find somewhere calm to shoot reflections of the surrounding hills
Just off the lake on the east side there is a nice little creek that meanders its way to the lake with Castle Rock and the surrounding green mountains as a backdrop.
This lake is great at sunrise or sunset. The surrounding mountains are not high enough to put the whole scene in shadows. The sunset or sunrise is always casting a beautiful light somewhere.
You can get easy access to the shoreline via the numerous campsites around the lake. You will have to stop and pay a $5.00 day use fee, but it is well worth it.
Note that in mid-summer you might encounter some crowds, as these campsites fill up quickly. Still, you will be able to find ample shoreline access to get some good shots, just not as many as if you had full access to all vacant campsites. Thus, I like to hit Wellington Lake in late spring and early fall. It is much less crowded.
The photographs below were taken on an evening in early May. Just about all the snow was gone and the grass was turning green. It was quite stormy in Denver, but very tranquil up in the mountains (usually it is the opposite). I got there about 45 minutes before sunset and stayed until 30 minutes after. The variance in light between my arrival and departure made it a great shoot.
On the east shoreline there are some cool rocks that make great foreground elements, and you will have Castle Rock in the background.
A small creek makes for a breat subject on the east side of the lake.
Along the road over the dam, there are great views over Pike National Forest
The light about 20 minutes before sunset was great!
