Backpacking Warren Lake

This weekend was a lot of fun! And a lot of work... A couple of friends and I backpacked to Warren Lake for an overnight adventure. Of course, I brought the Canon camera...

We knew it was going to be a tough 7 mile hike in, but we did not realize how grueling it would be. Lots of uphill and downhill, and uphill and downhill. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the lake and found a spot to set up our tents. And we were DONE by the time we got back to the car on the second day.

It was worth it though. I'm not sure if I'll ever go back, but I'm glad I got it done. And I'm happy with these new photos!

These first four photos were all shot with the Canon R5 Mark II and a 24-105mm lens.

The rest of these photos were all shot with my phone. Shots of our camp and hike.

Fun times out there! Exhausting, but fun.
Thanks for looking, and I hope you all had a great weekend!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.TruckeeTahoePhotos.com - Art
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Lake Aloha in Desolation Wilderness

A Photography Adventure at Lake Aloha in Tahoe's Desolalation Wilderness.

"Desolation Wilderness Sign 1"

Last Friday, I headed out to Tahoe's Desolation Wilderness again. This time with Tony Spiker of SpikerPhotography.com, he and his wife also own the Vista Gallery in Tahoe Vista. Our destination was beautiful Lake Aloha. I had been there a couple weeks earlier on a big backpacking trip with my son and some friends (see previous blog post HERE).  Although I got some great photos that trip, I wasn't 100% focused on photography like I planned on being during the Lake Aloha trip with Tony.

We started backpacking from Echo Lakes fairly early in the day and after a nice healthy climb, we made it to Lake Aloha in great time. We had both decided to bring our tripods instead of tents so setting up camp wasn't much work at all. The food was hung in a nearby tree and the photo fun began. 

Lake Aloha is an incredibly photogenic lake. There are tons of dead trees, boulders, and small islands in the water. The shoreline has plenty of trails along it, there is also plenty of easy access to higher mountain peaks where you can get a great view of the lake from above. 

"Lake Aloha 4" - Photograph of Lake Aloha in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness..

"Wildflowers at Lake Aloha 2" - These pink wildflowers were photographed at Lake Aloha in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness.

After getting some nice daytime photos, we took a break and Tony taught me how to fly fish. I'm a fishing fool but I had never fly fished before, and what a perfect setting to learn. Although we didn't catch any fish, I did catch this nice photo below. Thanks Tony for showing me how to cast, now, how am I going to convince my wife I need to spend the money on a new rod and reel???

"Fly Fishing at Lake Aloha" - Photograph of Tony Spiker of www.SpikerPhotography.com fly fishing at Lake Aloha in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness.

The late afternoon light at Lake Aloha was great so the photography fun started back up. I had a lot of fun shooting more dead trees and including the sun in the photo:

"Lake Aloha 12" - Photograph of dead trees at Lake Aloha in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness.

When it was time to shoot sunset, the few clouds that we did have had disappeared. But we still got lucky with a nice alpen glow that gave us purple and pink skies in one direction, and golden orange and blue skies in the other. Again, the dead trees in the middle of the water gave us very unique looking photo opportunities. 

"Lake Aloha Sunset 6" - Photograph of Lake Aloha at sunset in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness.

As the sky started getting darker, we decided to do some light painting. Tony had brought his giant flashlight that works great for this kind of fun. During long exposures, he would shine the light on the dead stumps and trees to "paint" them with light. The flashlight puts off a much warmer color than a camera flash does and gives the image a great look.

"Lake Aloha Sunset 8" - Photograph of dead trees and stumps in Lake Aloha at sunset in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness. A flashlight was used to "light paint" the stumps during a long exposure.

We kept on shooting long after sunset. The moon was fairly bright that night and lit up the landscape very nicely. I took quite a few 20+ minute photographs, getting a interestingly lit landscape with a bit of star trails in the sky. My last photo was just after 11 p.m.,  then I crawled into my sleeping bag exhausted but happy. 

"Lake Aloha at Night" - A long exposure photograph lit by the moon of Lake Aloha in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness..

I woke up at 4:45 a.m. to shoot the sunrise but unfortunately it wasn't very interesting at all so I crawled back into my sleeping back and got a couple more hours of sleep before heading back down the mountain. 

Some items I would highly recommend bringing when doing a backpacking photography trip to Lake Aloha are:

• A quality big backpack. You'll need plenty of space for photo gear, camping gear, and food.
• One camera body. Skip the backup body or large battery grip. Lighter is better.
• A Tripod. I didn't bring one my first time to Lake Aloha and regretted it. It's more important than a tent in my opinion. 
• A camera flash and possibly a big flashlight. 
• Bug spray and sun block. There is no shortage of mosquitoes or sunshine at Lake Aloha.
• A food bag and a rope, or a bear proof food bin. The little ground critters are more of a problem than the bears in my opinion, they'll chew a hole through your backpack fast to get to the trail mix as I learned my first time out. Get your food hanging in a tree as soon as you arrive. 
• A good water purifier.  The climb to Lake Aloha takes a lot out of you.  Clean natural springs can be found in the area at certain times of the year, but you should definitely have a filter pump, SteriPEN, or iodine tablets ready to go.

If you ever make it out to Lake Aloha or Desolation Wilderness, I'd love to see your photos. Please leave a link in my comments area. Here's a slide show of more photos I got on this recent trip. Enjoy!

-Scott Thompson

Lake Aloha, Desolation Wilderness Blog Gallery - Images by Scott Thompson

The images above are available as large and small fine art prints, gift items, and as stock photography. Click on an individual image for a larger view and purchasing information. 

Desolation Wilderness Photography

A fun family and photo adventure into Tahoe's incredible Desolation Wilderness.

"Tree at Lake Aloha 2" - This tree was photographed at
Lake Aloha in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness.

Last week, I made a last minute decision to join some good friends on a 4 day and 3 night backpacking trip in Tahoe's Desolation Wilderness. We decided to go from Echo Lakes to Emerald Bay via the Pacific Crest Trail and other trails. My 11 year old son went with us so I had a lot to pack. With my backpack weighing in at over 50 pounds, I actually considered not brining my camera to spare my back. Boy am I glad I decided to ditch some of the trail mix and bring the Canon 5D MarkII.

My son Kane and I backpacking Tahoe's Desolation Wilderness.

I only brought the one body, a 24-105L lens, and a 580 flash. I don't have a carbon fiber tripod so I decided not to bring my heavy one. Although I missed having the tripod, I still pulled off some nice photos. Many of the photos that I shot were during quick stops along the trail so I wouldn't have really had time to set up a tripod anyway. For carrying my gear, I was able to remove the shoulder strap on my trusty old LowePro Topload Zoom AW camera bag and attach it to my backpack shoulder straps with 2 caribiners. It worked out very well for accessing the camera quickly without having to remove the backpack. 

If you ever get the chance to visit the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness, I highly recommend toughing out the extra weight of a good camera. There are an incredible amount of lakes to shoot in the Desolation Wilderness backcountry, I saw Echo Lakes, Lake Aloha, Heather Lake, Susie Lake, Half Moon Lake, Dicks Lake, and Eagle Lake.  You'll also find incredible granite formations and mountains, beautiful trees and wildflowers, wildlife, and more.  Here's some of the images I was able to get: 

Echo Lakes, at the start of our journey.  We "cheated" and took the water taxi across the lake so we could make it to Lake Aloha before dark.

Lake Aloha at Sunset, the first lake we spent the night at. In my opinion, this was the most photogenic of  all of the beautiful lakes. I want to go back for more photos here...

Heather Lake, a spot along our trip that we cooled off in with a quick swim. 

Gilmore Lake, the second lake we spent the night at.   The mosquito swarms here were probably the worst I had ever seen. 

Dicks Lake, we were going to stay here for the night but decided to continue on to Eagle Lake.

Desolation Wilderness vista view, an incredible spot where we were able to see much of the area we had traveld through.   A sliver view of Lake Aloha can be seen in the top center. 

Eagle Lake, the last lake we spent the night at. It was a short hike out to Emerald Bay in the morning.  We saw plenty of day hikers here as it is not too far of a hike from the road.

Below is a slideshow of even more Desolation Wilderness photos with some fun family snapshots mixed in. Get out there and enjoy it for yourself! (More info on visiting Desolation Wilderness HERE.)

-Scott Thompson

Desolation Wilderness Blog Images - Images by Scott Thompson

Most of the Desolation Wilderness images above (the ones without people) are available as large fine art prints, gift items, and to license, download, and use as stock photography. Click on an individual image for more information. 

A BIG THANK YOU to Todd Bromley of Class V Electric and the Bromley family for getting us out there!