Delicate Arch: A Utah Landmark

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Matt Hunt

On my trip through the National Parks of southern Utah, there was one shot in particular that I was after. I wanted to get a shot of the milky way through Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is symbolic of Utah; in fact it appears on their license plate. Formed of Entrada Sandstone, the arch opening stands 64 feet tall and 45 feet wide. It is the largest free-standing arch in Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch is not one that cannot be driven right up to and seen with a short walk. It requires a fairly strenuous hike of 3 miles round trip, with a 480 foot elevation gain. In the summer heat, this is made even more strenuous, and there isn’t a whole lot of shade along the trail! Since I wanted to be there for sunset as well, I completed this hike at probably the worst possible time of day, the late-afternoon, when it was well in excess of 100 degrees! The sign at the beginning of the trail recommends bringing 2 liters of water with you for this hike. I had finished off 1 liter by the time I reached the top.

Once I was at the top, however, I was able to sit in the shade and cool down, and it wasn’t bad at all. That’s the advantage of the dry heat! In spite of the heat and the relatively demanding hike, it was pretty crowded up there, but I fully expected that.

Even with the crowds, you can get a good angle on the arch from several different spots, so it’s not really an issue. The biggest issue is that everyone and their mother wants to get a picture of themselves standing underneath the arch! There was actually a line, and one at a time they’d walk out, take a few pictures, then the next person or group would come in.

Once the sun began to get lower in the sky, however, there was one brave photographer who yelled across the way for those people to clear the arch and give everyone 10 seconds for a clear shot!

This is another one of the top shots I was after on this trip, and one that had been two years in the making, ever since I was originally set to spend 4 weeks in Grand Junction, CO, just 2 hours away. The only thing that would make it better is if the La Sal Mountains had snow on the peaks! I guess I’ll just have to go back in the early spring to get that shot!

Later on as the shadows were creeping up on the arch, and the light at the top of the arch was even more brilliant, I took it upon myself to yell across the way and ask for another 10 seconds to shoot!

You see the difference in the color there as the sun gets lower, and the light turns to a more brilliant orange. I just wish the arch was sitting a little higher, or there wasn’t anything blocking the sun at the bottom of it at this point. Nonetheless, that was quite a beautiful moment, and in this scenario, a completely cloud-free sky was another thing I had been hoping for.

The lack of clouds was absolute requirement after the sun set if I were to get the #1 shot I came for with the milky way! After the sun went down, the crowd slowly started to die down, and for a moment I thought it would just be myself and one other photographer there to shoot the milky way, but by the time darkness had set in, half a dozen or more photographers showed up.

To get this shot, I had planned on doing two separate exposures. One for the milky way itself, with a high ISO to take in more light. I then wanted to do a separate exposure for the arch at a lower ISO for less noise, lit by my flashlight. I made sure the other photographers were okay with me light painting for a couple minutes, because I was still doing a long exposure for this. If you light paint on a high ISO, you really only need a flash.

Back on the computer, I combined the two images in Photoshop. Since I’m not that skilled with the various methods of cutting parts of layers out, I did this all by hand when zoomed way in. In addition, my camera creates this odd noise on long exposures with these little purple, red, blue and yellow lines. I went through all the dark spots on the foreground with the spot removal tool and took literally thousands of these little specs out by hand! This one image has about 4 hours of labor in it, but the end result was well worth it!

Want a print of this image? Visit my Etsy store to order! I got an 18 x 24 inch canvas of this printed for my wall at home, and it looks great! Just contact me if you want to order any other images that are not in my current inventory on Etsy!

Canyonlands All-Nighter

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Matt Hunt

There were two places I wanted to photograph in Canyonlands National Park, which was about an hour drive from Moab. One involved the Milky Way, the other involved sunrise, so I just planned to stay out there all night, rather than drive an hour back just take a quick nap, then turn around and go right back to where I came from!

My first stop was at False Kiva. This trail is not marked on any park map, but if you just Google it, you’ll find it. The trailhead is not officially marked by any plaque, or even a parking area, but the trail itself is easy to see. The reason for this is that the park doesn’t want thousands and thousands of visitors to this place. I can’t find a whole lot of information on it, and I believe it’s because there’s a lot they don’t really know about it. I do know that it is an archaeological site, so they are likely still trying to figure out more about it. A kiva is basically a wall of stones in a circle. They could be used to live in, or have spiritual ceremonies. This one is called False Kiva because its origin and exact use are unknown.

I had seen good shots of this location at sunset, as well as at night with the Milky Way, so I wanted to get both. I set out about two hours before sunset. All of the info I had read put this hike at about an hour. That would give me plenty of time. Most of the trail was well-defined, flat, and easy. There was one section of slick rock where it was difficult to determine where to go, but I could see where cairns once stood, and as I went I stacked these rocks back up to make new cairns so that I could find my way back in the dark!

The hard part comes at the end of the hike, where you actually descend below the alcove where False Kiva is, then pass it, then have to climb back up to it. That brought out some sweat! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when I was eating dinner prior to leaving Moab, I checked the temperature and it said 109!

When I got to the site, I noticed a metal box sitting behind a big rock. I opened it and found some information on the site, some rules, pens & a notepad that a lot of other hikers & photographers had signed. I went ahead and signed that notepad myself!

Sunset was beautiful from this spot! The last light hit those cliffs and turned them red, and the hazy air allowed the horizon to generate a beautiful orange hue, while further up the sky remained blue. Gorgeous!

Okay, I have a confession to make. I screwed up on the Milky Way shots! First of all, I didn’t realize how far to the left the Milky Way would be as it first became visible, so I had to move my camera from this spot, and I really didn’t like that angle. Also, what I should have done was take a shot of the canyon prior to full darkness so that I could create a two-image composite with a visible canyon, and visible Milky Way in the sky. I did not, and without that, you really can’t discern any part of the canyon. Add to that the fact that most of the sky became obscured with cloud cover after the sun had set.

Being at this place… wow. I was a little bit anxious, to be honest. I was looking forward to getting back to my car! I was a bit worried about finding my way back in the dark, and it just felt odd being out there all by myself. The only sign of any human life out there were the planes flying overhead. It was a little eerie, so when it appeared the clouds were going to be around for a while, I decided I didn’t want to wait any longer, and around 11 pm I decided to hike back.

I made it back to my car without any issues, and from there took the very short drive to the Mesa Arch parking area, where I would try to get some sleep in while waiting for morning. I wasn’t quite sure what time I needed to get up and hike to the arch, as I had heard people start getting set up HOURS before sunrise to get a good spot! I set an alarm for 3 am, but to be honest, I barely slept any.

The sky ended up clearing not too long after I got there. I did get to enjoy quite a few meteors, and a seriously dark night sky, with a bright Milky Way clearly visible. This was pretty amazing! I just love being out in the middle of nowhere looking at the stars on a clear night.

The first car pulled up about 2 hours before sunrise. That was my que, time to get my stuff and hike out to the arch! Those two French guys would beat me there, and in fact I got a little lost on the trail trying to find it! The trail is a loop, and I ended up doing the loop, missing the part where you turn off the loop to go to the arch! Eventually I found it, and was glad to find they weren’t set up where I wanted to be anyway!

Slowly but surely other photographers started trickling in. We didn’t like what we saw in the sky… clouds! There was a very brief period where the sun had a clear part to shine through, and the shutters went off like machine guns!

There was still plenty of room for me to take the camera off the tripod and get some different angles, so I took advantage of that. The best use of the D500’s 10 frame per second speed for me is handheld HDR bracketing! I can fire off three consecutive images with very minimal movement of the camera, allowing them to easily line up in Lightroom later. I did a lot of that on this trip.

After just a few minutes, the sun was gone behind the clouds. I wondered if that would be it, but I wasn’t even thinking about leaving just yet! I was taking a close look at the clouds, and figured there would be a chance of the sun poking back out once it got higher in the sky. I wasn’t sure how much orange glow would be on the bottom of the arch at that point, but I sat and waited. Others did not, including those two French guys who were there first. They gave up, packed up and left! BIG mistake, because the clouds cleared 10 minutes later, and this happened:

YES! This is what I came here for! That orange glow on the bottom of Mesa Arch is just incredible, and you know what? I’m glad we had those clouds, because it adds some interest to the rest of the sky in the photos! I left Mesa Arch feeling great… really tired… but great, knowing that I had gotten the shots I came here for!

Before going back to Moab, I stopped by Dead Horse Point State Park. It was right off the road that went to Canyonlands anyway, and I figured morning would be a good time to be there. To be honest, I’d rather have been there earlier, but that wouldn’t have been worth missing the magic at Mesa Arch!

There’s actually a poster of this place hanging on the wall in our office right behind me where I stand at my computer. However, it’s just a view of the canyon, so I didn’t know about all these Juniper trees along the ledge! I was happy to see that, as I’m always looking for some foreground interest to add to these vast landscape photos. It definitely makes for a more interesting photo!

I couldn’t leave without doing my signature selfie, though!

I was SO tired at that point, but it was all worth it! I got back to Moab, and after eating some breakfast, hopped into bed!

The Narrows

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Matt Hunt

Ahhh, it sure was good to be back at Zion National Park! This is without a doubt one of my favorite places, even though I had previously spent all of one day there! After a long drive out from Dallas, I had spent the previous night in nearby Kanab, UT, about an hour away. I arrived at Zion relatively early in the morning, and planned on heading to the last stop on the shuttle, the Temple of Sinawava, which was where The Narrows hike began.

Before I got through the east end of the park, however, I ran into a huge group of bighorn sheep, so I had to stop and take some photos! I originally only saw one standing on top of a rock, so I turned around, and by the time I got back in that area several cars had stopped, and I noticed quite a few. Then more showed up. Then more showed up! They were all females with the exception of one male ram. Of course I focused on snapping pictures of him, because those big horns (hence the name) are pretty impressive!

This has to be one of my favorite animals. And sure, you can see bighorns and other animals in an enclosed space, like a safari drive, but there’s just something so much more magical about seeing them out in the wild. Obviously these animals have been around for a long time, as they can be seen in petroglyphs throughout this area of southern Utah. What a magical creature!

Moving on through the park, I got to the visitor’s center and got my bag put together and caught the shuttle. It takes quite a while to get all the way to the final stop in the canyon. I’d recommend getting there much earlier than I did, and catching the very first shuttle out. I had to wait in line for a while just to get on the shuttle. It was mid-morning, I forget what time, but this seems to be the busiest time of day for the park shuttle.

The trail starts on the Riverside Walk, which is a well-maintained path, so that part is easy. This goes for about a half-mile I believe. Where this ends, it’s time to go straight into the Virgin River! I purchased a pair of water shoes with a pretty thick sole on them a few days prior to leaving, however I was never able to find any neoprene socks. I noticed that many others had the same shoes on, with sizes noted by markers. They were rentals. I should have done more research! Those shoes (and socks) looked legit, and much better than my $25 water shoes. As it would turn out, I really could have used those! The insoles in my shoes came loose, and were shifting all around inside the shoe, and rubbing against my feet. I ended up with skin scraped off in four different areas, two on each feet. The most problematic of them all were on the inside “corner”, if you will, of each foot right at the ball of the foot. This spot on the right foot in particular would end up being an issue for the entire duration of the trip! So if you do the Zion Narrows hike, be sure you are properly outfitted for it! I’d recommend using one of the local outfitters to rent those shoes. I couldn’t tell you which one those people got them from, but I’m sure a little research would reveal that!

At any rate, I’m not sure how far out I went, but I hiked for about 3 hours before deciding to turn around and come back. The water was never even waist deep, and most of the time was only ankle deep. In this 100-degree weather, it was much more pleasant hiking in the mostly shaded, cool waters of the Virgin River! I heard one guy saying you could go as far as 14 or 15 miles down the river if you are so inclined. Obviously I didn’t go quite that far! But it’s a good hike for the family, and you can make it as long or as short as you want.

As far as a photography standpoint, well that was tough. The river was absolutely packed with people, so I had a hard time finding spots where I could get a clear shot. On many occasions, just as I thought I had a clear shot, a group of 10-15 more people would start hiking through. At one point right after I had set up my tripod, this kid literally sat down RIGHT in front of my camera. Ugh, really kid?! I just glared at him, and after a minute or so he started moving out of the frame. I’m sure it wouldn’t be so packed during the cooler months, but at those times a wet suit may not be a bad idea!

Enough words, on to the photos! Contact me for prints or canvases of any of these photos!

Zion The Beautiful

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Matt Hunt

I woke up well before sunrise in my tent in Page, AZ. Since I was up so early, I thought I’d give it a shot to get some Milky Way photos prior to making the 2-hour drive to Zion National Park. I returned to the Horseshoe Bend area, and just set up quickly in front of some bushes. Since dawn was soon upon me, the sky ended up having a beautiful blue tone to it. It was a decent shot, but unfortunately I didn’t take the time to get the foreground bushes in complete focus. Oh well.

After just a few shots, the sky was getting too bright, so it was time to head on up to Zion! This entire drive is beautiful, and I made a few stops along the way to take pictures on the side of the road. I arrived at Zion a little after 8am, and got my bag together in preparation to make the Angels Landing hike!

During the warmer months (I was there in April), public vehicles are not allowed to drive through the canyon, so you must park at the Visitors Center and ride the shuttle. They come by often, so there’s not a lot of waiting around. I got on the shuttle and was on my way.

It was actually a pretty chilly morning, but as I started my hike, I quickly began shedding layers. Even with the fairly gradual slope at the beginning, I had a big bag with my camera, a couple lenses, tripod, water bottles, and some snacks on my back, so it wasn’t long until I was in a t-shirt and shorts.

The hike is pretty strenuous, especially when you reach Walter’s Wiggles, a series of 20 switchbacks with a steep incline. When you get to the last 1/2 mile or so, it goes from a hike, to basically a climb. There are several ledges in this section that do not have a ton of room, and are situated on the edge of a 1,200 ft drop to the canyon floor below! In fact, six people have fallen to their deaths on this hike since 2004, according to the sign at the base of the trail. There are chains bolted to the rock in these locations for hikers to hold onto, just in case. Don’t let this scare you away from this hike, however, as there is still plenty of room to get by without being too close to the edge. You should not be completing this hike in running shoes, though. Get some real hiking shoes/boots. You’ll be thankful for the extra traction. On the way back down, the girl in front of me was slipping and sliding all over the place, while I never had an issue.

Anyway, the climbing part isn’t that strenuous, because you’ll be taking frequent breaks to wait on others to come down, or on others in front you to get up. Once you reach the top, you’re treated to the most incredible viewpoint ever!

I spent a great deal of time just sitting at the top of Angels Landing, taking in the view. I was grateful in that moment, just to be there. Life doesn’t always give you what you want. I always wanted to be married with kids by age 34. However, if that were the case, I probably wouldn’t have been there, in that moment. So there are advantages to any situation. I still hope to have a wife and kids someday, but in the meantime, I’ll continue to cherish the opportunity to go on adventures like this!

Going down was much easier than coming up! That’s an understatement! Once I got back down to the valley, I looked back up at where I had been. I had to take a picture of that! It was crazy to see just how far I had climbed!

At that point, I was starving, so it was time for my first real meal of the day! In hindsight, I should have stopped for a big breakfast prior to that hike, but it’s whatever! I went into Springdale, and with the help of Yelp, found a place called Whiptail Grill. I chowed down on some chips & salsa and carne asada tacos, and washed that down with a Corona! It was perfect! I can highly recommend this place, and in fact I plan on going back when I’m in Zion again next week!

After getting my campsite set up, organizing my car a bit, and taking a shower, it was just about time for sunset. While on the shuttle bus, the driver mentioned that the Watchman at sunset, photographed from one of the bridges, was a popular spot for photographers. Alright, I’m game.

There I got to talking with a nice photographer from California. We shared some of our favorite images with each other. He had an amazing photo from a lake out in California! It was fun chatting while I let my camera snap away on interval shooting.

I wasn’t done yet. After sunset I went up to the Canyon Overlook, as I knew the moon would be out, and thought it may light up the canyon. Yes, it was a little eerie hiking out there in the dark! I hadn’t actually been there yet, so I was completing that short 0.5 mile hike for the first time! I was also the only one up there, which I found a little hard to believe! Why were all the other photographers going to bed? They were missing some great shots!

Nope, I STILL wasn’t done! I stopped on the side of the road (the one you see there where the light trails are) and continued to shoot in the dark. After a few minutes, a truck pulled up and the guy asked if I was getting any good shots. I told him I was getting some great shots! He asked if I’d mind if he tried, too. Of course not! Well he only had an iPhone, so he wasn’t able to do what I could with my Nikon, but nonetheless, here was another cool person I chatted with. His name was Cody, he was originally from North Carolina. He had spent the winter working at a ski resort near Salt Lake City, I believe he said. He had just arrived at the park, and didn’t even have any reservations! He did have a camper that he had built on the back of his truck, so he really just needed a place to park, but still. I love that, though. I love that sense of adventure, and spontaneity! We talked for quite some time, and he even tried to convince me to go on a night hike with him. I passed in lieu of sleep, and then he said something that has stuck with me, “you won’t be telling your grand kids stories about sleeping.” Touche, Cody.

I still went back to get a little bit of sleep, but it wasn’t long before I was up again.

I knew that the moon would set well before sunrise, making the Milky Way visible. Once again, I was up before any signs of daylight, packed up my campsite, and went out to shoot some more!

I went to the parking lot of the museum to get a shot of the Milky Way above the Watchman. Unfortunately, there were a few thin clouds in the sky, but I just kept shooting and shooting hoping they would clear enough for a good shot. It was cool, and WINDY that morning! Once again, pretty eerie being out there by myself. I had a headlamp around my head, and my flashlight in my pocket. I kept my head on a swivel, looking around for other vehicles, or anything else out of the ordinary. Then I heard a rustle in the bushes. I quickly turned my headlamp on and looked that way, but didn’t see anything. There are mountain lions in this park, you know. So then I got my flashlight out of my pocket and shined it in the direction of the noise. Ah, there was something heading this way! I couldn’t tell what it was at first, then it got closer and became clearer. A raccoon! They can be mean, and have rabies! The hairs were standing up on my neck, and I was preparing to do my best Pat McAfee impression and unleash the boomstick on this dude! Luckily, he thought better of it, and turned around and ran the other way. Whew!

So yeah, here was the shot I got out of all that!

After that I got in my car to warm up and avoid anymore wildlife run-ins while waiting for the sun to come up. Another popular shot here is first light hitting the Patriarch’s, which were right behind me, so no need to go anywhere!

This time there were a couple other photographers out, completely unaware of the Milky Way shot they had just missed!

The sun was blocked by many clouds that morning, and there was just a narrow window of opportunity with at least some visible light on top of the cliffs, but nonetheless, I made it work out okay!

After that I went back to the Canyon Overlook for a daytime shot.

Then I traveled back through the eastern part of the park, which is also beautiful, on my way out to Monument Valley!

Zion just might be my favorite place I’ve ever been! I know this is a place I can come back to and spend a week, and never run out of trails to hike, or pictures to take. If you’ve never been, I would definitely recommend putting it on your list! I’ll be back next week to hike the Narrows, and probably Observation Point!

The Grand Canyon

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Matt Hunt

Tuesday April 12, 2016. This was a significant day. Not just because I had three stops (Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend), but because on this day 23 years prior my father passed away from cancer. It’s hard to believe it has been that long.

I got an early start out of Flagstaff, because I wanted to be at the Grand Canyon by sunrise. I didn’t have much time, since I needed to be in Page for my Antelope Canyon tour by 11 am. More on that later…

It was freezing that morning. Literally freezing. The temperature was 32 degrees when I woke up in Flagstaff. That scent of the Ponderosa Pine was in the air as I loaded my bags back into my car and hit the road. It was an easy drive through mostly flat grasslands, and more Ponderosa Pine forests, which became more prominent as I approached the park.

While cruising along, I saw something unexpected. There was a bull elk, grazing right along the side of the road! I had to stop and take pictures, of course! I quickly put my telephoto lens on and went to work.

Gosh, what a beautiful animal. There were actually two of them, but this one was closer to the road. The other one was further back into the woods, and I couldn’t get a clear shot. I snapped a lot of pictures, and also spent some time just admiring this majestic creature. I only wish they had their full antlers!

As they both ventured further into the woods, I decided to move along, but I didn’t get very far before spotting another elk on the other side of the road! I pulled over and snapped some more photos!

By this time the sun was already rising, so I continued into the park. I didn’t have to pay, because I had my America The Beautiful Pass! If you’re planning on visiting 3 or more National Parks in a year, this pass will pay for itself. I was doing just that on this trip alone, and planning two more trips this year that will take me through another half a dozen or so parks, so this pass is more than worth it to me!

So I got into the park and headed out to the overlook, where I was greeted by the first light hitting the cliffs on the west end of the canyon.

Oh. My. Gosh. I was absolutely floored by the sight of this place! Of course I had seen plenty of pictures, but seeing it in person was something else. I immediately realized that no picture could ever do this place justice. It is simply stunning. It is massive. It makes you feel small, as well as grateful to live on such a beautiful planet!

I spent some time walking along the trail on the canyon rim, just looking for good spots to stop and take photos. I was looking for any kind of foreground interest to add to all of that wide open space on the horizon.

While I wasn’t doing anything as risky as I saw others doing, I did get out on some ledges. You feel more alive when you are closer to death! There are no railings along this trail, and one wrong step would be the end of your story with such a steep, and long drop to the canyon floor below.

That picture describes my feeling perfectly. How can you not love it? How can you not look out over this massive canyon and feel like the world is yours? The world is yours… to explore! Why would you ever want to just stay in the same place forever with all of this beauty out there?

After the above picture I decided it was time to move along to another lookout point. When I got to my car I punched in the address in Page that I was heading to (where I needed to be by 11 am, remember?), and it said my arrival time would be… 11:02 am! Oh no! I had to go!

If you know anything about time zones, you know that Arizona has its own time zone. They do not participate in daylight savings time. Utah is on a different time than Arizona, even though it’s in the same latitude. Page is just south of the state line, very close to Utah. So when I got to the Antelope Canyon tour place, the lady said she’d go ahead and check me in, but it was only 10 am. Oh no! I could have spent another hour at the Grand Canyon!

That was my biggest regret that morning. So if you’re going to be in this area, and you’re going to be doing things that require punctuality, make sure you know before you go about the time zones, and don’t rely on your phone or GPS to give you an accurate time!

I guess that just means I’ll have to go back to the Grand Canyon again! Really, I would recommend you spend far more than an hour there when you go. I would at least dedicate a whole day, so that you can see the sunrise and the sunset.

The Valley of the Sun

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Matt Hunt

Since I was not able to camp at White Sands, and started the morning an hour further west, I had a little more time than I had expected on day 2 of my road trip. Heading into this day, stopping at Saguaro National Park in Tucson, AZ was a possibility, but now it was certain!

I was very excited to cross the state line into Arizona. It’s a state I had been wanting to visit for such a long time, and I was finally there! What beauty there was for my eyes to behold. All of the various plants lining the desert floor, while the mountains overlooked them. These are the kind of mountains I like. The rest of the land around them is perfectly flat!

Saguaro National Park is actually split into two separate sections; the Tucson Mountain District to the west, and the Rincon Mountain District to the east. I only stopped at the latter, and went around the loop drive, which was about 8 miles total.

Despite this being one of the hottest and driest deserts in all of North America, there is quite a variety of plant and animal life here, and I was able to sample a good bit of it all!

Of course this park is named after the most recognizable cactus of them all, the Saguaro. These cacti are exclusive to the Sonoran Desert, and symbolic of southern Arizona. They can live for up to 200 years, and grow to be 60 feet tall. When fully hydrated, they can weigh over 4,000 pounds! The blooms of the Saguaro represent the Arizona state flower.

I was also lucky enough to get to see some animal life while in the park! I ran into these two right on the road! A rattlesnake and a Gila monster!

Maybe I’m a little crazy, but I had been hoping to see a rattlesnake! I was definitely watching my step everywhere I went, because I don’t want to invade their space, but I did want to see one with my own eyes, as well as get a photo. I think they are beautiful creatures! How lucky was I to be able to do just that in one single trip around the loop drive?!

After leaving the park and picking up some tacos for lunch, it was on to Phoenix! I just had a couple of goals for my visit to Phoenix; hike Camelback Mountain, and get a good skyline shot.

It was raining when I arrived in Phoenix. What kind of luck is that? How many days a year does it rain in Phoenix, like three?! I was watching the radar closely, as well as noting the clearing visible to the west. The rain did let up by late afternoon, so off I went to Camelback!

Temperatures were only in the 60’s, yet I was still sweating like crazy on this hike, or climb, as it would be better described! There are two options to get to the summit; the Cholla Trail, and the Echo Canyon Trail. I took the Echo Canyon Trail, which is 1.23 miles in length, with a 1,280 ft elevation climb. The summit of Camelback is 2,704 ft above sea level. If you ever plan on doing this hike, bring plenty of water! I only had one bottle, and downed the whole thing before reaching the peak, and it was a cool evening! I can’t imagine doing this in the typical desert heat!

The views from the top are fantastic, of course.

Since they ticket anyone in the parking lot after dusk, I had to get down and go elsewhere for my skyline shot. Luckily I had spoken to a park employee before the hike and found out that the Piestewa Peak Park, not too far away, stayed open until 11 pm. So that is where I went to get my skyline shots. I didn’t actually climb to the peak, as that was about the same climb as Camelback. Instead I formed my own trail in a way, and went to a smaller peak to the south, where I was able to capture the skyline.

Conditions weren’t perfect for the shot I really wanted, but since it was my only night in Phoenix, it would have to do! It was certainly better than nothing. The Phoenix skyline itself is not anything spectacular, but the mountains in the background make it special! Blue hour from that spot was pretty cool, too!

I did have one more shot I wanted to get in the Phoenix area before leaving, and I pursued that the following morning. I wanted to get a good shot of the jumping cholla cactus with the backlit sun at sunrise!

For this shot I went to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve Gateway Trailhead in North Scottsdale. I had scouted out this location the day before. The only downside to this spot is that McDowell Mountain blocked the very early morning sun, so by the time the sun peaked over the mountain top, it was a bit more intense, and not quite as golden in color. Still, the shot turned out okay!

The jumping cholla is an interesting cactus, and probably my favorite one! It is covered in spines, which feature tiny barbs, helping them stick to anything they touch! You have to be extra careful around these cacti. The branches are segmented, allowing smaller sections to break off. This is how the seeds are spread, and why you typically see these cacti in groups that are close together. In the picture below, you can see all of the little segments littering the ground around the cactus!

What a cool plant! I really enjoyed the Phoenix area. It is beautiful, of course, and features a wide array of outdoor activities and life. If I lived there, I’d hike Camelback a few times a week for a cardio workout! I hope to visit again some day and stay longer, but if I don’t get the chance to, I’m glad I can say that I conquered Camelback Mountain!