Moonset and Sunrise on Grandeur

In the light of full Moon?

Last month, on Summer Solstice Night of 2008, we had a fun moonlight / sunrise trip to Coyote Buttes, escaping the heat of the summer desert day and photographing the famous Wave in very interesting low-light, artificial-light, and slanted-rays conditions. Even with my no-tripod point-and-shoot camera, I was able to photograph in the dark just by holding the camera on the surface of the rocks.


The hot, dry spell of summer continued on, and remained just as excited about hiking in the cool of the night - and about capturing the experience on photographs. So on the next full Moon, I joined an informal crew of trail runners for a 50K moonlight run in Millcreek. We started minutes after 9pm up Great Western Trail, then took Desolation trail to Baker Pass, descended to Palisades by Bowman Trail and Terraces-Elbow and Pipeline trails to Church Fork, and finished the night by up-and-back on Grandeur Peak. The Moon was out by the time we reached Park City Ridgeline, and the lights of the cities shone below, but ... this time I had another little camera, and alas, the tricks I learned on the Wave no longer worked well! But ... my pace really started dying down on the last dozen miles of the route, which happened to have more than half of the tracks 6,600 ft vertical... and, no cloud without its silver lining! Because of the slower pace, by the time I approached Grandeur, the East was already alight, and I was finally able to shoot some nice dawn pictures :)


Trip Stats: 31 miles, 6600 ft up, 8500 ft down, 10hr 20'

Images

View Moonset and Sunrise on Grandeur Image Gallery - 4 Images