When you think of the US National Parks and the photos you’ve seen that may have inspired you to get out and explore them, a Mesa Arch sunrise photo may have been one of those photos. Mesa Arch is a sandstone arch in the Island In The Sky district of Canyonlands National Park near the small but growing town of Moab, Utah. If you go there during the day, it doesn’t look like much. It provides a sweeping view of the canyon below if you walk up to the arch in the middle of the day. Aside from that, the arch isn’t particularly impressive.
Chances are the photos you may have seen of the arch that impressed you were taken at sunrise. As the sun rises at Mesa Arch at Canyonlands National park, the sun shoots through the arch and the underside of the arch glows. Naturally, as more and more people saw this spectacular sunrise spot, more and more people flocked there to experience this sunrise view. It is absolutely spectacular and one of the best places to watch the sunrise anywhere in the US National Park system.
My first venture down to Moab was back in 2010. That visit included mid-day and sunset visits to Arches National park and Canyonlands National Park. It was that visit that sparked a love affair and led to a ten year road trip to experience and photograph the US National Parks. Prior to that visit I’d seen photos of Mesa Arch as sunrise but wasn’t much into photography and was delighted to simply see the stunning red rock sites of southern Utah any time of day.
In subsequent years, I made numerous trips to Moab to experience and photograph Canyonlands, Arches and the surrounding sights in the national forests and BLM lands. By that time, I’d started a blog (that no longer exists) and jumped head over heels into photography. The number one photo spot on the agenda during subsequent visits to Moab was sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park.
Many of my subsequent trips to southern Utah were in the fall and winter. Southern Utah in the spring, summer and early fall is incredibly crowded and often scorching hot. During the winter months the days are short, the temperatures can be anywhere down to 20 below zero (particularly up at Mesa Arch at sunrise) but the crowds thin out substantially. Ice on the red rocks can make hiking a bit treacherous but a dusting (or more) of fresh white snow on the red rocks can make for absolutely stunning landscape wall art and photo prints.
During an extended winter visit to Moab in 2014, I stayed at the Lazy Lizard hostel in Moab. The Lizard provides basic but adequate accommodations for the single budget traveler. Each day there, I’d look at the weather forecast for the following day. If there were no storm clouds or actual storms predicted then I’d plan to get up at the crack of dawn, hop in the car and make the 40 or so mile drive up to Mesa Arch for sunrise. Along with looking out for storms, I’d look for the predicted sunrise temperature. The colder the better, not because i wanted to freeze my ass off but because even in winter Mesa Arch can get quite crowded at sunrise and temperatures of twenty below zero seemed to discourage some people from making the sunrise drive up.
On the morning this Mesa Arch sunrise photo was taken it was quite cold. Certainly below zero. You can see a little bit of snow on the ground in the photo and can tell it is winter or at least cold up there. The skies were partly cloudy and the orange glow materialized as expected.
When most people go to Mesa Arch they crowd into a small spot to shoot sunrise. Shortly after sunrise most people disperse and head back to their cars. They come to shoot the exact photo they’ve seen in magazines and on social media. Once they take that shot they leave. That is great for those of us who know better. Unlike most sunrise photo spots where the show and the photo opportunities are finished a few minutes after sunrise, the good shots of Mesa Arch at sunrise can last for AT LEAST a half hour after sunrise. The sun continues to paint the underside of the arch a bright orange. As the crowd clears out it becomes much easier to photograph the arch from a lot of different perspectives that most people don’t even think of.
This photo was taken about a half hour after sunrise when the bulk of the crowd was cruising back to Moab happy with the shot they got but not knowing what they missed by getting in and out so quickly.
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