Canyonlands National Park
is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries. Legislation creating the park was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on September 12, 1964.
The park is divided into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the combined rivers—the Green and Colorado—which carved two large canyons into the Colorado Plateau. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character. Author Edward Abbey, a frequent visitor, described the Canyonlands as “the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth—there is nothing else like it anywhere.”
Mesa Arch, Canyonlands, USA
Another early morning mission, this time it wasn’t as lonely as normal, as this was quite a popular sunrise spot quite a few other people had made it as well. A beautiful sunrise shot through Mesa Arch into the deep canyon surrounding the Canyonlands.
After Arches, the Canyonlands National park turned out to be another epic surprise, a giant plateau or mesa, surrounded by vast deep canyons as far as the eye could see. The great colours and the sheer size of the structures made it extraordinary.
I spend an afternoon and a morning there and had to extend my stay in the hotel in Moab, mainly due to work commitments and the low temperatures, but also because I am lazy and it was just so comfortable. My highlight was sunrise at Mesa Arch, or better through Mesa Arch. A stunning sight and absolutely worth the crazy mission it took to be there at this time of the day. Due to the time of the year sunrise was late but I still had to drive an hour to get there, actually find the trailhead and hike for about 20 minutes, all this before sunrise of course. Unlike many of the other sunrise spots I had been to quite a few people were already there and more were on their way. Quite a few of the “I’ll put my tripod here and leave it in the exact same spot for the next two hours and won’t let you get the shot” kind of people were there, but somehow we found a way to arrange ourselves and everyone got their shots.
It would’ve been possible to leave the plateau and drive down to the level in between the top of the Mesa and the bottoms of the canyons. It was serious off road terrain and I didn’t have the balls to push Eddie down the serpentine road.
Sunset, Canyonlands, USA
Getting ready to shoot sunset wasn’t as complicated, just move to the other side of the plateau, sit on the cliffs of the canyon and watch that yellow ball go under in the distance.
Canyon, Canyonlands, USA
Normally I am not to keen on shooting mid-day, but the blues in the sky and the red tones in the rocks made it a blast in Canyonlands. there was nothing else to do any ways, no cafe or visitor centre near, just the vast landscape.
