Meadow Lake is a small mountain lake that sits at over 9,000 feet elevation. It's a beautiful spot as well as a great place to fish. We weren't able to stay long enough for "magic hour" light, but I liked this shot of the outlet stream with the peak in the background. The second image is one that might not thrill anyone, but I liked the view through the viewfinder of the green mixed with the white rock and dead branches.
That looks like one cool spot! One first thought in both of these, the highlights seem to be blown in both, whether it's the sky or the rocks. Keep an eye on your histogram when shooting. You can always take two shots one for highlights and one for the shadows. But the most important one generally is exposing for the highlights. It's amazing how much shadow detail ACR can now pull out of your raw images.
As for the compositions, I like #1, though I wish that tall tree wasn't in it. Not sure if you could have moved more to your right when shooting that one. And with #2, I have shot similar scenes, that especially seemed so cool in person, but sometimes left me scratching my head when I got back... This is a nice scene though and I can see why you were drawn to it. If you can recover the highlights in the rocks that would be a big bonus here. I also think I would crop a bit off the top of it to lose that tree in the upper right.
What a gorgeous area. It seems quiet and calm there, I could already see myself casting a line out there. I'll have to echo what Jim said. I'm not too bothered by the tree as the white sky. I do like the composition in #1. I like how the foreground and the river leads my eyes to the mountain ridge.
Thanks for the great comments Jim and Jason. What looks like a blown sky on the first shot is actually a white cloud behind the mountain. I was hoping to stay later to see if I could catch some color in the clouds, but it didn't work out. Below is another image which shows the cloud as well as the blue sky.
This is a nice scene though and I can see why you were drawn to it. If you can recover the highlights in the rocks that would be a big bonus here. I also think I would crop a bit off the top of it to lose that tree in the upper right.