Hike to the Cosmic Ashtray in Grand-Staircase Escalante to Photograph the Milky Way

Mish

1 day ago

This is a pretty strenuous hike. Here’s what you need to know.

The Trailhead

It’s about 8.5 miles round trip to the cosmic ashtray, also called the volcano in some books. Part of the hike is in the sand but it’s mostly uphill slickrock to the spot.

Walking on slickrock is normally easy, but in this case the hike is on a slant the entire time making matters more difficult. I would rate the hike moderate to difficult, and difficult when coming back at night.

Don’t take this hike by yourself. It easy enough to slip and fall. I did the hike with two friends, Sue and Fred. Thanks!

There are two routes to the hike. We went from the trailhead at the end of Spencer Flat Road (Old Sheffield Road). Use All Trails or other apps to stay on track.

Getting There

About 10.5 miles East of Escalante, on Utah 12, turn right on Spencer Flat road. Continue for about 6.7 miles to a parking lot where the road dead ends.

Spence Flat is a dirt road but it was in good shape for our trip. A regular car can make it, depending on conditions. It’s best to inquire. Do not take any of these dirt roads when they are wet.

Understanding the Shot

It’s hard to describe the size of this old volcano.

It takes an extreme wide angle lens to even begin to fit the ashtray in a single shot. My land sequence is 24 vertical shots with a 20 mm lens focus stacked (stack of 3) to keep the foreground and background sharp.

I have about 60 percent overlap on my shots, so one might be able to fit everything in one shot with an 1l-mm or 14-mm lens, but not 20mm.

The volcano is deep and there will be hard shadows if there is full sun. The shot is best after sunset or before sunrise when the colors are softer and warmer.

My image is a blue hour blend after sunset with the Milky Way taken about 80 minutes or so after sunset.

We allowed plenty of time to get to the spot, or so we thought. But we did not arrive at the ashtray until about 15 minutes before Sunset. Normally, I would like to be at any scene for the entire golden hour before sunset, but my intent all along was a blue hour blend after sunset plus the Milky Way.

For those more interested in the hike itself, a cloudy day is much better than the clear sky that I wanted for this night blend.

Sue to the Rescue

Shortly after sunset, I reached for my iPhone to load an app called PhotoPills to align the Milky May.

However, my phone was dead. I was charging it for an hour in the cigarette lighter in my car (I thought, but did not verify). My phone was not plugged in properly and it was completely dead.

Fortunately, Sue had the app on her phone. The position I initially picked was not the right one. The Milky Way was well below the rim of the ashtray from the spot I originally selected.

I then did a mad scramble up the side of the volcano to get a blue hour sequence in the waning afterglow.

I stayed in the same position for the rise of the Milky Way and PhotoPills had it perfect.

I was in a bit of a precarious slanted spot the entire time.

Without Sue’s phone I would not have gotten this shot. Thank you Sue!

Straight Up – No Star Tracker

For this hike, I did not carry a star tracker which would have added too much weight. Instead, I took three star images of each frame to reduce noise, all focused at infinity.

I used a Canon RF 20mm F1.4 lens, ISO 4000, at F2.0, for eight seconds. This is a phenomenal astro lens for those shooting Canon. I find 14 mm a bit too wide and 24mm too narrow.

Each set of three was blended in Pixinsight to reduce noise (resulting in 8 reduced noise images) then blended in an app called PTGui.

I then blended the land set and the night set, also adding an additional set of H-Alpha images captured with a tracker the next day. So this is actually composite of over 70 images.

Too many stars subtract from this image. So the final shot contains some pretty dramatic star reduction techniques to reduce the stars. The app I used counted over 240,000 stars in the composite.

Equipment Used

I used two camera bodies fore this image.

These land sequence was taken with a Canon EOS R5 Mark II.

The astro sequence was taken with an EOS R5 modified by Spencer’s Camera to pick up more of the red H-alpha bandwidth.

For both sets the Canon RF 20mm F1.4 lens.

More Grand-Staircase Images

August 7, 2026: Road to Infinity, Grand Staircase-Escalante Milky Way and Airglow

In May, I captured a full arch Milky Way image at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

October 4, 2026: See and Photograph Beautiful Reflections on the Escalante River Trail

The Escalante River trail meanders many times across the river and leads to a beautiful natural bridge.

July 14, 2023: Exploring Willis Creek Slot Canyon: A Hidden Gem

The rain this Spring and melting snow from winter made for some spectacular waterfalls in numerous Southern Utah locations this year. Here is another set of images.

September 14, 2021: Capture an Amazing Vista Under the Escalante Natural Bridge

This is a view with an extreme wide angle lens from beneath the Escalante Natural Bridge in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

September 23, 2021: Photography Guide to Lower Calf Creek Falls in Grand Staircase

There are two waterfalls which you can visit, the upper falls and the lower falls. The lower falls is more accessible, a bigger drop, and much more popular.

October 22, 2021: Photography Tips for Grand Staircase Devil’s Garden at Sunrise