The Experience
“Man, this is easy! I’m storming past these switchbacks. We’ll be there in no time.” My confidence would only last so long until the second set of switchbacks that would take us up the cliffside to the alpine lake. Then, there would be pain.
It blew me away that even the local rangers told us that they’d never been to Gourd Lake. It’s because the local highlight is Crater Lake underneath Lone Eagle Peak. But all the permits were gone; so the ranger on the phone recommended Gourd Lake to us. “It’s essentially the same thing except the mountain isn’t as pointy.”
The trail follows a creek from the Monarch Lake trailhead so there are plenty of water sources. Since it’s in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, the trail also isn’t nearly as crowded as some of the more popular areas of Colorado.
The trail started out quite easy for the first 6 miles or so. It climbed steadily until you reached the cliff that led to the lake. Then, the switchbacks began to make our legs burn.
In the end, it took us about 7 hours to reach the lake. We set up camp and explored the area. The wild flowers were vivacious this time of year.
As we rested our throbbing calves and stared at the rockface over the lake, I began to notice it beared resemblance to Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars. From that point, we called it Jabba’s Rock.
Due to the popularity of nearby Crater Lake, I assumed we’d have company pretty soon. But we only saw about 3 people for the entire evening, including one graceful young woman who took a dip in the freezing lake. I wanted to ask her for her picture, but it seemed inappropriate for such a private setting. Looking back, I wished I’d gone for it though!
As evening set in, we enjoyed the view from our “backyard”. A simple walk to the top of some rocks gave us a gorgeous view from where we’d traveled. About 50 shots later, we ran out of sun and were very hungry.
Star Trail Mission
I had a mission in mind for this trip. I was to capture my first star trails photo. It didn’t have to be a masterpiece; I just wanted to know how it was done. However, in my ultralight ways, I’d refused to bring a tripod up to the lake. So I was left with mother nature’s tripods.
Star trails aren’t as complicated as they seem. It’s much easier to take tons of shots with an intervalometer (if you or your camera has one) and simply stack them later. I rested my camera on top of a rock, set it to take a shot every 30 seconds at 500 ISO at F2.8. There was a new moon this night, so there was no ambient light to light up the foreground and I foolishly did not take a shot while lighting the foreground with my headlamp. So all the shots were very dark.
The other problem I encountered during this mission was sleep (or lack there of). I never realized that hearing a camera shutter every 30 seconds would be enough to keep me awake at night! I sleep with a fan and am very addicted to white noise when I sleep. That little “click” really threw off my sleep game that night. But it kept me awake long enough to appreciate to great horned owls “hooting” at each other for a good while. (I LOVE owls.)