Morning in the Canyon

Exploring First Light at Salmon Hole:

I feel like many of my stories start off with, “I’ve wanted this one for a long time!”  Well, it’s true.  This was Spring, with very little rain, and equally few clouds.  Every time there were mornings with potential for an interesting sunrise, I was committed elsewhere.  Finally, my schedule, potential clouds, and where the sun was supposed to rise all lined up.

For this to work I was up at 4:45am with my bike, backpack, and gear loaded.  After a dark ride into this spot, I got everything set up and started running through test shots.  The wind was really blowing out of the canyon that morning, so I ultimately ended up with all of the layers I brought on.  When I first got started, the sky was mostly clear in this direction.  However, the clouds were moving fast because of the strong wind.  As a result, it wasn’t clear what things were going to look like when the sun came up.

At the moment when it really counted, I got exactly what I wanted from the sunrise.  The clouds had blown halfway across this view leaving me with blue sky on one side and the dark bottoms of the heavier layer approaching on the other.  After the sunrise was complete, I broke out my warm breakfast and watched the sun slowly illuminate the rest of the area.  In little more than 30 minutes clouds had blanketed the entire sky.  The area was still beautiful, but the dynamic morning light was gone.  I had come so close to not getting it!  Honestly, that made it even sweeter!