Tag: Snow Canyon

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah, March 2023 – Sunrise Day 2

I set out from my campsite before sunrise on the first morning after my arrival in Snow Canyon to hike to my chosen location for sunrise photography.  It was a crisply cold morning, which I dressed for, but I was soon unzipping my jacket as my body generated heat from the gentle uphill hike.

I stopped at a location near petrified sand dunes, chose a location to set up my camera and waited for sunrise, making a few pre-sunrise images.

Pre-Sunrise in Snow Canyon

I’ve always liked the lighting just before sunrise and I often like those images better than those after the direct sunlight hits the subject.

Sunrise – Snow Canyon

I made a number of images as the direct rays of the rising sun began to impinge upon the distant canyon walls and add color to the sky.

Sunrise – Snow Canyon

After seeing the early morning rays touching the uppermost parts of the highest peaks, I began to hike back towards my campsite, looking for other scenes to photograph.

Snow Canyon – Early Morning Light
Snow Canyon – Early Morning Light

The park has rules requiring visitors to stay on the official trails, which is limiting for photographers.  It does not appear that those rules are rigidly enforced.  There were numerous footprints and even bike tire tracks in the sand, adding unsightly features in my photos.  Sometimes I will edit these out or at least try to mute those via editing, but many times I think the editing introduces undesirable artifacts, so I might not eliminate all such features.  It is likely that casual observers will not note the edits, but knowing where the edits are, I can nearly always see unnatural results and would rather not introduce those into my photos.

Until next time,

Ken

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah, March 2023

In late March of 2023, I traveled to Snow Canyon State Park in Utah with the intention of staying here a full week.  The park features, which are impressive, are essentially located along the roadway that goes through the park.  However, due to the orientation of the canyon, sunrise works for golden hour photography in some portions of the park, but sunset golden hour is either very limited or non-existent.  This was a disappointment, as that greatly limited my photographic possibilities here.

After checking into my campsite, I drove towards the south exit/entrance (I had entered via the north entrance) to check out the scenery in that direction and to get a cell phone signal.  There is only a weak, at best, phone signal at the campground, but a good signal at and near the south entrance.

On my way back to the campsite, I stopped to check out Jenny’s Canyon, a very short slot canyon that is accessible via a short hike from the roadway.

Eastern Canyon Wall, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

I stopped to shoot this image of the canyon wall, that I hiked towards, which is the rock formation where Jenny’s Slot Canyon is located.

Big Mouth Rock, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

I noted this rock atop a portion of the canyon wall, that I dubbed “Big Mouth Rock” for obvious reason.

Sky Slash, Jenny’s Canyon, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

Sunlight filtering down into narrow canyons can create some remarkable color contrast on the canyon walls.  The image above is shot looking upwards towards the sky from within the short slot canyon.

Sky Slash 2, Jenny’s Canyon, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

 

Canyon Wall Details, Jenny’s Canyon, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

Usually, I find something of interest to photograph in route to my destination, but I found nothing of special interest during my first two days of the drive.  Maybe I wasn’t looking intently enough and too preoccupied with getting to my stops.  Although, I did see this group of deer near the entrance to my first overnight stop.

There is always at least one in a group photo that is not looking at the camera. iPhone Photo.

I’ve picked out a general location for sunrise photos tomorrow.  The results are next up.

Ken