Weminuche Rock

Guy's beautiful images from the Mt. Oso area of the Weminuche have finally motivated me to post something from my trip into that neighborhood back in June. We went in from the north side and ended up camping two nights near Rock Lake, just over the pass from Moon Lake in Guy's shots. It's a splendid area, tons of photo potential back there. I was cursed with constant blue skies plus a bit of smoke that week, but there were still good images to be had.

Here's a version a little more obedient to the rule of thirds, FWIW.

And for fun, here's my grab shot of Moon Lake. We hopped over to that drainage to climb Oso on our layover day, and ended up eating late lunch at Moon Lake. Moon was my favorite lake of the trip (Flint is very nice too), and I'd love to spend a couple days camping there.

Man, that last one is backpacker's paradise, imo. I don't even care that the light is harsh - I just want to be there.

Blue sky shots are still stunning, when you have scenery like the last one.

Those are beautiful, Jackson. All of them work really well for comp, color, and clarity. The last one has a dark line along the ridge on the upper right. Easily fixed. Man, would I love to be able to see all of these places for myself!

Okay, you're the second guy in a week to make me want to leave home immediately and drive to the San Juans...
Joe Rogers

Just added Moon Lake to my ridiculously long list of places to visit and photograph. These are great, Jackson! The first two are nice but I'm really fond of the third one. Looks idyllic!

I need that last one on my desktop to remind me why I work.

You and Guy have certainly caught my attention -- definitely adding this area to my list of places to visit as well. Awesome.

Okay, I hate you, too.

Cool to see what was over that ridge line seeing as we never got time to get all the way up there! I really like the second one of those. Welcome to the "Todd hates you" club!!

OK, you guys (you and Guy) are gonna have to cough me up some directions to Moon Lake! That last one makes me want to be there ...badly! Nice work on these.

Love the greens and blues of the 3rd Jackson. What a gorgeous place!

I much prefer the composition of #2 over #1, although #1 is just as beautiful in its own right. I do like the placement of the rock in the water in #1.
And #3 is just plain sweet. A classic Rocky Mountain image!

Tough call on the two reflection versions... I think I like the second one a bit more - the more prominent rock there provides some good foreground interest, and the reflection seems a bit more clear. The third shot is killer. That's cool you climbed Oso - I've been meaning to do that for years, but never seem to get around to it. Any shots from the summit?

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the comments as always! It's nice to see how positively everyone's responding to that Moon Lake image.

Jack Garrett, I approached from the north, via the Ute Creek drainage near Rio Grande Reservoir. But if I were to do it again, I'd use Guy's route from the south via the Los Pinos River, east of Durango. Nothing wrong with the scenery in Ute Creek and on the Continental Divide, but the terrain to the south was generally more dramatic. Either way, though, it's at least a 2-day backpack to get into that area, at least for most of us

Jack Brauer, thanks again for the pre-trip advice! I'll post some Oso climb shots in another thread.