Waterfall Near Imogene Lake

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Imogene Lake is a popular hiking destination in the Sawtooth Mountains. Up quite high in the mountains, it is one of the largest lakes in the Sawtooth National Forest. On the early June morning that I took this photo, I had planned to catch the sunrise at Stanley Lake and then hike the trail to Hell Roaring and Imogene Lakes. It was a big day, considering it started at 2:30am, and on the way through the mountain pass I hit a deer on the highway. It wasn’t at a high speed, so I was still able to continue on, as was the deer. The hike was a 14-miler, with 1500 feet of elevation gain, and took about 8 hours due to the number of stops I made to take photos. As I reached the final mile of trail before the lake, I ran into a lot of snow patches on the trail, and hiking got a bit more difficult! I could hear the roar of this waterfall long before I could see it, and as I reached an open meadow along the trail, I was able to see the full grandness of the waterfall. I took several photos of the falls, trying different things with shutter speeds and apertures, and then I put on a 9-stop neutral density filter to allow a much slower exposure. I like long exposures with waterfalls in general, and I was very happy with how this one turned out.