Summit Creek Sunrise

Horizontal orientation. Canvas prints are available with optional barnwood or hardwood floating frames hand-crafted by the photographer, making a truly unique and one-of-a-kind piece of art. Please see images for details.

Trail Creek Road leaves Ketchum and winds up over Trail Creek Summit toward Challis, following Summit Creek for several miles. In July 2026 I was driving early in the morning to the Kane Lake trailhead for a day hike, and noticed mists rising from the creek as the skies in the east began showing bright orange and yellow colors. I was excited to reach the trailhead, but I know from past experience that when a scene catches my eye, I need to pull over and capture it while I can! There had been some thunder storms the previous night, and the brush and grass along the creek were extremely wet, but I was prepared with waterproof boots and didn’t care too much that my pants were getting soaked! I shot several images along the bank of the creek while the sunrise colors were showing off. There were quite a few wildflowers along the creek bank, and I tried out several points of view to find a composition with some flowers and wet grass near the creek in the foreground, and the sunset in the background. From this angle I could still see the mists rising from the creek, which made a perfect mid-ground. This is my favorite image from the creek that morning.