Morning At Broken Arch

About a month ago my wife and I went to Moab, Utah, during her spring break, to check out the two National Parks in the area - Arches and Canyonlands - as well as Dead Horse Point State Park (which I wrote about here) and various other points of interest in the area.  While we were there we took a sunrise hike to Broken Arch in Arches National Park. 

There are arches and destinations in Arches that are more spectacular, or iconic, but a sunrise hike to Broken Arch is probably my favorite.  The trail is easy, about 1.2 miles round trip, following a sandy trail that goes from the parking lot across a large meadow to the arch.  Walking into the sunrise, you can feel the morning sun on your face and watch the shadows forming across the landscape as the sun breaks the horizon.  Dawn that morning was at 6:37, with sunrise at 7:04.  We were on the trail as the sun rose, just in time to watch the subtle differences in light and gesture as Broken Arch met the morning...

I had my wide angle lens (Nikon 10-24 DX) on my camera as we hit the trail, knowing from past experience that I would need a wider angle to frame the arch in its entirety, and that I may be able to incorporate a sunburst in a few shots.  We got to Broken Arch shortly after sunrise, and after I walked around to the east facing side of the arch I took this shot.  7:16 A.M.

 
I then turned towards the arch and scrambled up the rocks to get this shot...  7:18 A.M.

As the sun started to warm the arch I moved closer, framing shots until I found a composition I liked...  7:20 A.M.

I then climbed back down and walked around to the west side of the arch, and started taking tight shots of the arch as the sun began to shine through...  7:31 A.M.

I waited another couple of minutes until the sun hit the rim...  7:33 A.M.

 
Then I switched to my fisheye lens.  This lens lends a little more curvature to the scene, and also produces a "tighter" sunburst, with more defined rays.  This was taken at 7:38 A.M.  

  
Broken Arch is definitely worth the effort of getting out of bed to catch sunrise.  The next time I'm in Moab, I'll be sure to make the trek again...

All photos taken with a Nikon D7000 camera body, and Nikkor 10-24 DX (wide angle) and Nikkor 10.5 DX (Fisheye) lenses

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