If you are planning to go to Glacier National Park and did background research on where you can take stunning photos, the answer is EVERYWHERE! What about if you only have a day or two? You must go to Polebridge, and spend an afternoon to hike around Bowman Lake for a short and easy hike, or Kintla Lake, if you have more stamina.

We are lucky to have done both! It took us 2 hours to drive from Columbia Falls, where we stayed for the past week, to Kintla Lake, a more remote lake that possibly only overnight campers would go. After reaching Polebridge, the road became a lot bumpier with lots of loose gravels and pits. Make sure you have a steady four wheel drive.

We walked nearly 10 miles on the trail along the lake, from the west trail head almost all the way to the east side. After the first 2-3 miles, the trail ascends, bends away from the lake and gets a bit challenging, particularly if you are carrying a heavy camera bag with several lenses like I do. By the time we finally arrived back at the lake side again, we couldn’t wait to take off our socks and rest our feet in the turquoise water. The rocks beneath were a lot bigger than those at the trail head, and quite slippery to walk on if you venture into the water just 4-5 feet away from the bank. I did it for the sake of getting my portrait taken but almost fell flat face into the water.

By the time we walked back to the parking lot, it was already 7:30pm. We spent almost 5 hours on the hike, and only met 5 people in the first 30 minutes, all returning from the trail. We didn’t realized we were this “hardcore” dedicated to our lake hike….

Nevertheless, it was perfect timing to take sunset pictures. I am running out of synonyms for “stunning”, “spectacular” of the beauty unfolded in front of my eyes. All I could do is to share these amazing moments with you through my lenses.

Tip of the Day

To photograph landscape, timing is really important. Without any change of your equipment and skills, you literally could change the quality of your images if you know how to choose the “right time” to take your photos.

The timing dictates the lighting you’ll get and thus the color you’ll capture. See the pictures I took in the same place below, at the trail head of Kintla Lake.

This first one was taken at 1:56pm in the afternoon. Sky is blue, light is harsh, and the mountain has no colors.

1:56pm, unprocessed camera RAW image

ISO100, 16mm, f10, 1/200sec

And the following was taken at dusk, at exactly the same place, 41 minutes before sunset. In this golden hour, apparently the mountain was showered with a golden glow.

Day 20 - Kintla Lake Glacier National Park-003.jpg — 7:47pm, unprocessed camera RAW image

ISO100, 16mm, f/22, 1/6sec

Now this last image below again was taken at the same place, but 8 minutes before sunset. Part of the foreground hill (on the right of the image) lost its golden glow.

Day 20 - Kintla Lake Glacier National Park-004-2.jpg — 8:20pm, unprocessed camera RAW image

ISO100, 16mm, f/22, 0.5sec

Below is a “makeover” example. I processed the last image above in Adobe Lightroom. I typically don’t drastically change colors in post processing in landscape photography, but hey, there is no right or wrong in one’s creation mind. Anything is possible!