Sunset at Alouette Lake on an early summer evening in Golden Ears Provincial Park.
Sunset at Alouette Lake Beach
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Early this summer I went to Golden Ears Park to photograph Lower Falls on Gold Creek. While this was my primary goal I was also hoping for some photographs of Alouette Lake during the day or perhaps with some sunset light in the clouds.
I tend to visit Golden Ears Park in the spring and fall, and avoid the warm summer days as the park is quite popular and the parking and crowds can become a problem. The day I visited was early in the summer, but was also a weekday so the crowds that show up in the summer weren’t frequenting the lake yet. As I’m writing this the park gate is temporarily closed, and has been closed many days for the last few weeks as the parking lots fill up. There is a lot of parking at Alouette Lake, and I can’t imagine what the place is like when it is that busy! So I stick to the times of year when there are 10 cars in the parking lot and the place is a bit more relaxing.
When I arrived at Alouette Lake in the evening I had to wait for a while for the colour to show up in the clouds. This was by no means a certain thing and I didn’t actually think it was going to happen. I wouldnt’ have minded though – my main reason for being here was to photograph the waterfall and I’d already accomplished that. Any sunset colour was just going to be a bonus. While there was almost nobody at the lake at that hour there were a few drunk (I presume) women wading in the swimming area for about 25 minutes that didn’t stop splashing, screaming and swearing at the top of their lungs. This is a nice, serene spot normally (in the evenings) but until they left it was anything but. Luckily the best colour in the clouds didn’t materialize until after they were gone and I had the beach to myself while I made these photographs. The color that did arrive was a bit strange, with much more purple than I’m used to in a sunset but I like the result regardless. Trying for sunset light in the clouds while looking to the north can be rather hit and miss, but I was happy with the results this particular evening.
View of the beach and swimming area at Alouette Lake
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This last photograph is the view of the beach in the late afternoon. There are a lot of mountains around Alouette Lake, and I think they make this a much more photogenic location than your typical lake in the woods. The closest peak on the left is Edge Peak, followed by Mount Nutt and Mount Gatey. Far in the distance (right) are Mount Clarke and Mount Ratney.
You can see more of my photographs from this park in my Golden Ears Park Gallery.