Rising Sun
Well hello sun shine, just here to say good morning… a right of landscape photography passage is venturing to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park near Moab Utah to see the sun rise over the Colorado Basin where the Colorado and Green River meet.
At this confluence a tiny arch tends to perfectly frame a sunrise with the La Sal mountains creating some of the most unique and stunning vistas anywhere.
Combine these views, with the relatively straightforward and surprisingly short hike, and late sunrise of fall and you have one of the more crowded photography location outside of a manmade feature.
A mix of amateur, and pro photographers try to line up hoping to create the perfect shot where the sun creates a starburst at the vertex where the arch and horizon meet. Often times arriving 2-3 hours ahead of sunrise to fight for the spot.
Simultaneously you have several hundred non photographers who want to feel the experience and catch a snap on their smart phone. Often they are trampling over everything to get to their spot of enlightenment, others be damned. Their trampling is not limited to land either often including tripods, cameras and sometimes people.
This place serves then as ground zero between photographer and non photographer where both drawn by the hope to experience the same thing slightly differently impact each other.
These leads to often the most epic of hostile encounters you might see outside of the concourse at Yankees stadium post loss. Where everyone is some form of Karen and tripods and hiking poles become lances.
As people fight and others watch in horror, great shots are plentiful. I’ve been here now twice in the span of 8 months and seem clear crisp fall days and summer monsoons and come away with a variety of photos that I love. Sure I’ve never got the aforementioned starburst but honestly I wasn’t trying for it.
so do go and be nice.
sachi desai
