Lee Valley Lake
Greer, AZ
Lee Valley Lake is a small 9-acre impoundment at 7,500 feet elevation along the West Fork of the Little Colorado River north of Greer. The lake is stocked with trout and surrounded by aspen groves and mixed conifer forest. In autumn, the aspens turn vivid gold and are reflected in the lake's still waters.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- morning
- Crowds
- Quiet
- Shot Types
- reflectionlandscapedetail
- Best Seasons
- summerfall
Author's Comments
The aspens around Lee Valley turn in the last week of September, sometimes the first week of October, and the timing is narrower than you want it to be. At 7,500 feet the season moves quickly. One cold night and the gold is suddenly there, and one wind storm a week later and most of it is on the ground. I come for the reflections. The lake is small enough that you can walk its perimeter in twenty minutes, which means you can spend a morning looking for the one composition that works rather than hunting for the lake itself. What you want is a calm dawn. Not breeze-calm, but glass-calm, the kind of stillness that holds for maybe an hour after first light before the canyon starts to breathe. When it happens the aspens double themselves on the water and the photograph almost makes itself. The wider landscape here is honest but not spectacular. The compositions that reward you are tighter. A stand of trunks against still water. A single yellow crown reflected with the conifer shadow behind it. The detail shots, the bark and the leaves and the way the light comes sideways through a grove at seven in the morning. Bring a polarizer and know when to take it off. On the reflections you want it off entirely. Bring something longer than a wide angle. And come on a weekday if you can. The crowds are already low and a Tuesday morning in early October is as close to having the lake to yourself as anywhere in this part of the White Mountains gets.
Gallery
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