San Juan River, Utah
This panorama is one of my more memorable photo-graphical experiences, not sure if that is a word. Due to a relentless monsoon season in Colorado, I decided to head SW to the desert to see if I could shoot in drier conditions. I have rafted the San Juan River many times and have always looked up from the bottom of this canyon at this viewpoint, and thought of how great a photograph it would be from up there. So my plan was to camp at the Goosenecks State Park in Utah so that I could photograph the sunset or sunrise. It was a stormy night - not much sleep. I got up about 5am to a lightning storm that was very intense, strikes about every 15 seconds. When you are in the desert above the canyon rim, you feel very exposed. The lightning was so intense I was actually afraid to get out of the truck, so I waited and waited some more. As a new daylight started to appear, the storm started to lift and the lightning began to calm its thunderous roar. When I got out of the truck, I still couldn’t believe how much electricity was in the air, everything, was buzzing. I decided to quickly hike a hundred feet or so down into the canyon so that I could get below the highest point. I set my tripod up and electrical sparks were snapping where the legs touched the ground, so I waited a few more minutes before attaching my camera to the tripod. As the first rays of light hit the clouds, I knew I was in for a real spectacle. I waited until the sun covered the tops of the canyon walls before I snapped this colorful sunrise.
This image uses 7 vertical images stitched together to create this desert canyon panorama.
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