his morning I had the opportunity to do a little scouting around Chicopee Woods park, which is part of the Elachee Nature center. My focus for this trip is the lake and lake trail portion of the park.

I plan to make scouting trips in every season to locations like this to give a good idea on how these areas may perform for someone shooting wildlife and landscape photography.
The weather conditions for this early January day have been mostly overcast with a stiff breeze and temperatures ranging in the mid-fifties. If you closed your eyes you could possibly fool yourself into thinking this was early spring in March.

The cloud bank overhead would break occasionally letting sunlight peak through but, for the most part I had overcast conditions. I added a polarizer halfway through the trek to deepen the color a bit. The wind was not too noticeable except on the West Lake trail above the lake where it would pick up a bit.

The basic layout for this section of the park is as follows. Parking, a large picnic area, gazebo and dock like area and, two trail systems, East Lake and West Lake. I spend my time exploring up the East Lake trail to the Calvary Church bridge and, West Lake trail until most of the way around the lake. I also checked out the gazebo dock area.

Chicopee Lake Trails Scouting Video

First impressions, this part of the park was in some need of repair. There was some obvious flooding taking place along the East Lake trail and, the gazebo itself was submerged halfway making it impossible to walk on. The concrete portion of the path had debris and, a mowing at the front entrance was in order. Signage was in decent shape but also could use repair at the main entrance.

I’ll cut some slack here since one, its winter and the park is probably not getting as much tending as it might in the summer and two, everyone is forced to cut back on expenses so, they might just not be able to afford the upkeep like they would prefer.

 

The lake area had some previous flooding so it was pretty muddy on the day I did this scout making getting too close to the bank difficult. If I could reach the gazebo I think it would have offered some interesting vantage points. I think birding and bird type wildlife photography could work very well anywhere along the lake. I spotted duck, geese and heron on this visit.

The East Lake trail for the most part does not offer any remarkable terrain for the photographer. There are several small bridges that you cross and, at the point I stopped a small stream. I imagine this area might work best for someone wanted to do macro photography or isolate plant life since there are a few interesting plants in this area.

Another possible feature you might want to investigate are the marshy areas near the lake. Its boggy and, in the winter anyway, dead look could be interesting as well. Due to marshy conditions rubber boots are a good suggestion.

West Lake trail climbs higher that the East Lake trail beginning with a pass above the lake. The vantage here could make an interesting photograph of the lake in the right conditions, possibly spring or fall.

Continuing on West Lake trial takes you around the lake and down close to the shoreline. Setting up somewhere here could also be good for someone birding or shooting images of wildlife.

My overall impression of this section of Chicopee Woods is as follows. For the photographer you most likely would be focusing on wildlife photography, isolated vegetation or lake shore imagery. Spring and fall will probably offer the most to see here outside of wildlife. In the right conditions sunrise or sunset images could be accomplished in a constrained fashion. Also, the bog area could offer a few more interesting images but, this is not a large area.

Risk factors are the apparent flooding issues which hopefully they can address if you plan to visit the gazebo. Also, this is a quiet area but, as always when in the woods be aware of y our surroundings and pack as necessary. Footing is mostly dry and rocky unless near the marshy areas where rubber boots are suggested.