Hazy morning at Squaretop Lakes

After ignoring the alarm and sleeping in on Guanella Pass yesterday morning, my guilty conscience sent me back up last night so I could try to get my sorry butt out of the bag and hike up to Squaretop Lakes for sunrise. Pretty boring first light, but I climbed higher and really started liking what was happening back in the direction of the sun. This is the lower lake with morning haze rendering the Mount Evans/Mount Bierstadt massif in shades of blue/grey. I have some images from a few hundred feet above the upper lake, too, with both lakes visible and with a little clearer light on the distant peaks, but I like the featureless distant forms the haze created. I might post one from higher later, if it's raining in Richmond.*

As you can tell, the tundra is really showing its fall color! (A polarizer helped.)

*Nextel Cup racing at Richmond tonight. My world stops when the race starts.

Great image! I like the color of the foilage.

I do like fall colors! Beautiful image.

Nice color on the tundra indeed. See any change in the aspen yet near that area?

Really nice, Todd. One of my favorite close to home hikes, though I haven't seen it in such nice light with the changing tundra. Very pretty.

Beautiful fall scenic, and I agree, the haze makes the distant mountains seem further away and more mysterious.

Joshua: Nothing yet on the aspens. With this little series of cold fronts moving through, I suspect they'll start gettin' their change on real soon.

I love that fall tundra color!

Wonderful color! Way to make the most of the lighting.

Nice Todd. I agree with Jesse. I like the calmness of the image too.

Great shot with the lighting for sure. Tundra is really starting to look nice up high. I would have packed the camera away and just kept walking!

Nice!