Sunset at Trillium Lake

This is Trillium Lake, which is outside of Portland, OR.  I was there one evening last August with Dave Wilson and Justin Balog, two great friends and photogs.  We made the drive out there so that we could catch a (hopefully) beautiful sunset, but to be honest, the sunset was mostly non-existent.  The light was flat and boring.  

To be clear - the entire scene is incredibly beautiful, from a pure “appreciation of the landscape” point of view - but the sunset lacked any “punch”.  It was boring light.  It happens, unfortunately.

So, I have to admit that I added the orange glow/sunset look to this shot.  I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but I do enjoy my time in the digital darkroom, and after playing with this HDR for a while, it just felt like the thing to do.  I like it, but I know it’s not “real”.  But since this is art, and it’s MY art, I went for it.  

For comparison purposes, below is the original HDR, before I spiced it up with a little orange glow.  I still like the photo, and think it is beautiful in it's own way....just boring.  What do you think?