On this day, I awoke around 2 AM with the goal of shooting the Milky Way from a viewpoint in the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. After finishing that shoot, it was getting closer to sunrise, and on a whim, I decided to head over to Mesa Arch.
Having heard many stories of hordes of photographers standing shoulder-to-shoulder, tripod legs overlapping tripod legs, all vying to get a sunrise shot from this location, I had purposely avoided it on past trips to the Southwest. On this particular morning, however, there were several folks there with smartphones, but I was the only photographer there with a tripod. The only obstacles I faced were making choices about composition and camera settings.
I thanked the photography gods for my good fortune, headed back to my lodging in Moab, and slept for a few more hours.
