Ennio Morricone blasted loudly from my car speakers as I zoomed along highway 313 toward Dead Horse Point State Park. Think of any film you’ve ever seen set in the old west – chances are it was shot either in Dead Horse or in Monument Valley. In this section of my trip I visited both of these spots.
Dead Horse Point State Park + Canyonlands National Park
Note the small patch of green lawn at the bottom middle of frame.
Dead Horse Point overlooks the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park, and it was cool. I stayed here for about an hour walking along the edge of the canyon. Dramatic shapes and shadows form in every direction – the green edge of the Colorado river popping against the brown canyon.
Next I moved on to Canyonlands. I took less photos here. As spectacular as it was to experience hiking around, the scenery wasn’t terrifically different as I moved about.
Monument Valley
My alarm went off at five in the morning, and as the sun was rising I filled my tank with petrol and got moving to my next destination – Monument Valley. I wanted to get there before any potential crowds got in the way, particularly at the entrance, known now as Forrest Gump point – named for the spot where Forrest stopped his run across America. Thankfully there weren’t many cars around at all so I was able to get out onto the road and get some shots.
After about ten minutes another car pulled up behind mine and I met a couple of guys from California doing much the same trip as myself. I ended up in a convoy with them into the Navajo nation land. They had an off-road vehicle and invited me along to do the drive around the valley, where I was able to get some great shots.
This trip was the first time I’d ever used a tripod. It opened up a whole new world of photography of which I was previously unaware. I found a spot outside my room to set up and captured the colours changing across the mesas, then the stars above, and in the morning I shot the sun as it rose behind one of the mittens.
This shot is a composite of two photos – one from midnight and one from sunrise. Without a tripod these shots wouldn’t have lined up so perfectly, nor would I have been able to capture those stars without a lot more blur.
As spectacular as Monument Valley was, there really wasn’t a lot to do, so once I’d stayed the night I hopped in my car and ventured into the north of Arizona on my way to the last stop of my road trip loop…