New Beginning ! (Mesa Arch, winter sunrise)

Happy New Year !

May your New Year filled with Sunshine !

 

 

Mesa Arch during Winter Sunrise !

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands national park :- One of the most popular sunrise vista in Southwest, US. Mesa arch creates natural frame for spectacular view of surrounding canyons, washer woman arch and La sal mountains at a distant. But mesa arch got its fame for its spectacular views at sunrise, when bottom of arch glows red just when sun rises above the horizon.

Its an amazing sight to witness. Because of its popularity among photographers and tourists this place is always crowded.

But I was hoping that in winter I might beat the crowd. How wrong I was. To reach Mesa arch, I started from Moab around 5 am in the morning for Sunrise at 7.30am. Mesa arch which is in Canyonlands National Park an hour drive from Moab, UT. There were light snow showers night before so the roads were slippery. And Since I arrived just evening before in Moab I didn’t get a chance to scout for the location, which I normally do. I spent that evening before photographing Delicate arch at sunset. More on that later….

Back to Mesa Arch, when I reached Canyonlands National Park my cellphone couldn’t get signal, so no GPS anymore, and since it was early in the morning no visitor centre was open.

I decided to drive through but there were no visible sign boards specifically for Mesa Arch.

Finally after driving through icy roads for few miles I saw the sign board of mesa arch parking lot. Sigh of relief ! I reached around 6 am to the parking lot. Outside temp was showing 16 F, freezing cold. But there were already 3 cars in the parking lot, so I was not the only crazy one :) After a short hike for 15mins I reached the “spot”. After arriving I asked for permission to setup my tripod to other photographers who were there earlier. Before coming to Moab i did some research by looking into some of the photographs taken during the winter time. I did realize that during winter season, sun rises more toward right side(south) of the arch, so although it was not best spot I was not disappointed with the spot I got. Within next 20 mins there were more than 10 tripods in the same row.It was freezing, to adjust camera or tripod I couldn’t take out your gloves for more than few mins. Afterwards another photographer asked my permission to "squeeze in”, I was ok with it as long he was not in my frame. Had a nice chat with that guy. During all this I was shivering just to give an idea my display screen and adjacent area were frozen just with my breath.

 

 

By the time of Sunrise there were more than 40 photographers and viewers at that vista, all wanted to witness that spectacular show. When finally Sun started to rise above the horizon all I heard was clicking sound.

As a composition wise I wanted to get view of Washer woman arch and la sal moutons along with the red underbelly of the arch and starburst of sun, just to give glimpse of the spectacular view. Although this pic might not give real idea of that spectacular view, this is just an attempt.

By the time I finished which is around 8.30am, around 2.5 hours in 16 F temp I was feeling dehydrated and dizzy. While Returning My shoeless were getting loose but I didn’t bother to tie them as I didn’t want to take off my gloves :) . After reaching to the car I reviewed some of these photographs, I thought I got few good ones, I was happy. I weathered that cold with some results :)

 

 

I will post more of pics from Arches, Canyonlands and Bryce from same trip. But What I realized during this winter trip in some insane temp that hot showers are heaven :)

 

Single shot , Single Exposure !

Done