Blog: Dream At Dream
Moonrise at Dream Lake in December 2024.
I hiked out to Dream Lake on this cold windy January night to watch the nearly full moon rise and light up Hallett Peak. It was totally calm and still out on the frozen lake, like being in a dream....
I have visited Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park at least a dozens times, often in winter for a sunrise shoot from the lake. In the warm season it is an easy hike of only a little more than a mile; in winter it becomes more challenging depending on conditions. It is almost always windy at the lake in winter, and once I had a camera lens destroyed when a strong wind gust smashed my camera and tripod into the ice.
But I had never visited Dream Lake in moonlight, and so I got the idea this season to hike up for moonrise. With the moon rising to the east, and Hallett Peak to the west, I figured I could capture the star-filled sky along with the moonlit peaks in one shot. I arrived at the Bear Lake parking lot around 8 pm and I was the only car in the large lot which is often completely filled with cars. I hiked up to the lake with a headlamp, and winds were gusiing in the 40+ mph. range. But as I got to the lake and hiked out into the center of the frozen surface, it became totally still and calm. For a brief couple minutes I really felt like I was caught in a dreamlike state--it was a magical experience!
I took some shots from three different locations as the moon slowly rose and illuminated most of the lake and forest around me. It was another memorable trip to one of the most iconic locations in Colorado if no the whole United States!