Wildflowers of the San Juan Mountains (Part 4- Clear Lake)

 Wildflowers- Clear Lake

Tech Info (all images):  Canon 40D, 18-55 IS lens.

     Clear Lake is reached by a 4 wheel drive road that splits off the South Fork Mineral Creek Road just off Highway 550 near Silverton.  According to my map, the lake is at an elevation of about 13,100 ft.  On the afternoon that I visited, it was windy and rainy and the shore of the lake itself was lined with families that were fishing, so I didn't find the lake itself to be particularly worthy of posting photos.  The surrounding basin, however, had some nice patches of wildflowers, as you can see above and below. 

 As you can tell from the sky in the above photo, it was on the verge of raining during my stay at Clear Lake.  Since I remembered that high elevations like this are not wise spots to be standing in the event of lightning strikes (especially not leaning over a conductive tripod!), my visit to this spot was fairly brief.

 Paintbrush- Clear Lake

 bluebells after rain shower

Clear Lake is fairly close to Ice Lake Basin (at least as the crow flies), and also at similar elevation.  It sure is easier to achieve several thousand feet of elevation gain by riding in a four wheel drive Jeep than it is to hike it on foot!