In my previous post I showed a “Green River Overlook”. It is the same “Green River” but a completely different overlook.
This one you can drive right up to with no problem, get out of your car, walk a short distance and take pictures.
But you do need dramatic light, clouds, clear air, and good technique.
I merged 12 different images into that panorama. The right hand side of the image was the most difficult part. Contrast between the sun and the sky was intense. 6 of the 12 images contained various exposures of the sun.
Shafer Trail Road-Shafer Canyon Road is a 18 miles dangerous dirt track located in Moab, a city in Grand County, in eastern Utah, in the western United States. It requires extreme caution at the best of times for vehicles and mountain bikes, but especially so in inclement weather and at night.
This road has humbled many egos. It’s not for the sissies and shouldn’t be attempted by novice drivers. The road is in dreadful condition and requires strong nerves to negotiate it. It’s certainly breathtaking and it has a fearsome reputation. It still remains an adrenaline-pumping journey and is definitely not for the faint of lungs, heart, or legs. Words can’t describe the road and pictures don’t do it justice. This is a great trail for someone who is looking for an off road experience, but doesn’t have access a highly modified rock crawler. Virtually any four-wheel drive vehicle will succeed in navigating this well maintained road. Highlights of this trip include well marked Indian petroglyphs and amazing natural stone arches. You’ll also have an opportunity to tackle the Schafer Switchbacks, a breathtaking climb with expansive views of the surrounding canyon-lands.
I think the description is a bit over-dramatic, and contradictory. I agree with this assessment “Virtually any four-wheel drive vehicle will succeed in navigating this well maintained road,” provided the steep switchbacks don’t scare you to death.
I do not remember precisely what vehicle we had as it was a rental. All I remember was that it was a mid-size SUV, I believe with 4-wheel drive. Not a high clearance vehicle. I think any car could have done the road. I did not find it at all dangerous. But if you are not used to such conditions, I can see that it would have been scary. This road is about a half-mile from the visitor center. Just ask about conditions.
Caveats
Do not travel this road in bad weather
Drive from the national park to Potash, not the other way around. Nearly all the traffic is headed down, If you go opposite, not only will you have a horrendously steep climb, all the vehicles will be coming at you.
Access to False Kiva is difficult and the trail is not well-marked in places. It’s a sacred, ceremonial site. The park will not tell you how to get there unless you know about the site and asked.
This site was on my bucket list for a long time. If it is on yours, forget about it.
People vandalized the site and it is now off limits as of August 2018.
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More Canyonlands National Park images coming up.
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2025 Update
While the False Kiva alcove is closed, the trail to the site is still open, but visitors are asked to respect the closure and view the structure from a distance. The closure was implemented in August 2018 after a fire was lit inside the structure and ashes were used to create handprints on the walls, according to Moab Photography Workshops
Murphy Point is a 3.6-mile round trip hike with excellent views off the western end of the Island in the Sky. The trail is downhill most of the way with only 150 feet of elevation to contend with.
I started hiking with with clouds brewing and they kept getting darker and darker. When I got to the overlook, I looked around and found a small ledge I could duck under if needed.
Winds soon started howling at perhaps 40 miles per hour and would have blown a sturdy tripod with a my camera on on it had I not held on to it.
It started raining and sleeting so I ducked under the ledge I found. Sand was blowing all around like mad. Sand got into my camera and tripod despite the shelter and despite me attempting to shield them from the wind.
The wind, rain, and sleet lasted about 5-10 minutes. Then it became dead calm again.
I came out from the shelter announcing “there should be a rainbow”. And there was, right in front of me.
Plan the Shot
Just be at Murphy Point at sunset. Good luck with the clouds, light, and rainbow.
I was at the visitor center about two hours earlier and asked the ranger if he could deliver a rainbow for me that evening.
Feature Image Details
These clouds were exceptionally low, discounting fog, the lowest I have ever seen.
This was a a simple shot.
I emerged from the shelter and started shooting with a fairly standard range zoom.
To find the apex of the rainbow, look 180 degrees from the sun. In this shot, there is no apex. just a very low end of a bow due to the low clouds.
At noon, in the summer, the rainbow will be beneath the horizon unless you are up in a plane or a high elevation looking down. From a plane, you might actually see a full circle, especially at sunrise or sunset.
On a double rainbow, the colors are inverted. Note that red is on the left in one rainbow and the right on the other.
The primary rainbow is on the inside. A secondary rainbow, on the outside, is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet before leaving it.
A secondary rainbow appears about 10° outside of the primary rainbow, with inverse order of colors.
Memory Trick
Roy G Biv
The colors are always in this order, one way or the other: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
More Rainbow Details
Wikipedia has more Rainbow Details including this interesting tidbit.
A spectrum obtained using a glass prism and a point source is a continuum of wavelengths without bands. The number of colours that the human eye is able to distinguish in a spectrum is in the order of 100. Accordingly, the Munsell colour system (a 20th-century system for numerically describing colours, based on equal steps for human visual perception) distinguishes 100 hues. The apparent discreteness of main colours is an artefact of human perception and the exact number of main colours is a somewhat arbitrary choice.
Newton, who admitted his eyes were not very critical in distinguishing colours, originally (1672) divided the spectrum into five main colours: red, yellow, green, blue and violet. Later he included orange and indigo, giving seven main colours by analogy to the number of notes in a musical scale. Newton chose to divide the visible spectrum into seven colours out of a belief derived from the beliefs of the ancient Greek sophists, who thought there was a connection between the colours, the musical notes, the known objects in the Solar System, and the days of the week. Scholars have noted that what Newton regarded at the time as “blue” would today be regarded as cyan, and what Newton called “indigo” would today be considered blue.
Hmmm.
Roy G Cbv is not that easy to remember.
There are many other interesting facts in the above link.
Murphy Point is a 3.6-mile round trip hike with excellent views off the western end of the Island in the Sky. The trail is downhill most of the way with only 150 feet of elevation to contend with.
I hiked in with clouds brewing but wanted to get to the end by sunset. Winds all the way but the clouds kept getting darker and darker.
I looked around and found a small ledge I could duck under if needed.
I needed.
Winds soon started howling at perhaps 40 miles per hour and would have blown a sturdy tripod with a my camera on on it had I not held on to it.
It started raining and sleeting so I ducked under the ledge I found. Sand was blowing all around like mad. Sand got into my camera and tripod despite the shelter and despite me attempting to shield them from the wind.
The wind, rain, and sleet lasted about 5-10 minutes. Then it became dead calm again.
I came out from the shelter announcing “there should be a rainbow”. And there was, right in front of me.
Plan the Shot
Just be at Murphy Point at sunset. Good luck with the clouds, light, and rainbow.
I was at the visitor center about two hours earlier and asked the ranger if he could deliver a rainbow for me that evening.
Feature Image Details
This was a a simple shot.
I emerged from the shelter and started shooting with a fairly standard range zoom.
Mesa Arch is a Mesa Arch is a beautiful stone arch perched at the edge of a cliff with vast views of canyons, rock spires, and the La Sal Mountains in the distance. It’s on the eastern edge of the Island in the Sky mesa in Canyonlands National Park in northern San Juan County, Utah, United States.
This hike to Mesa arch is level, easy and only 1/2 mile long.
Canyonlands is adjacent to Arches National Park. The drive from Moab, Utah to the arch takes about 50 minutes per Google and about 40 minutes if you drive like me.
The nearness to Moab and the short easy nature of the hike makes this an extremely popular site. You will not have this location to yourself except maybe at 2:00 AM and perhaps not even then if Milky Way shooters are out and about.
Plan the Shot
To get this shot, you need to be at the arch no later than 45 minutes before sunrise and that’s probably cutting it close. There are 5-7 prime spots (elbow to elbow) and there may be 25 people or more at the arch at sunrise. If there is a photography workshop going on, forget about it, unless you beat them to the spot.
Assuming you get to the Arch in time to get a good spot, you still need clouds. And you need to have an idea of what exactly you will be doing. You might have a minute or two to get it done, at most.
Feature Image Details
This is a panoramic blend of several different exposures. One set was just before sunrise and one just after sunrise.
Normally, I take vertical images to make a horizontal panorama but I knew the light would be changing extremely fast. To reduce time, I took two horizontal frames instead of my usual six vertical frames.
I also used a Canon 11-24 F4.0 L lens at 24mm, not exactly a routine piece of equipment, but that was not necessary. Any 24mm lens would have worked.
If you are at the Canyonlands Island in the Sky district, the Arches is nearby. For most, it’s probably the reverse.
