Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch is a pothole arch in Canyonlands, Utah, US. This spot is famous for its sunrise, since the low angle of sun rays illuminate bottom of the arch, resulting in a red glow.

Photo tips: This spot is very popular and so be there early, in order to find one of few spots. Photographers usually line up near the arch to get a wideangle shot of the arch and the landscape below. Wide angle lens will be most useful here, but even something a bit longer can be used to isolate just a part of the arch.

Getting there: Mesa Arch is in Island in the Sky district of the Canyonlands National Park. You will have to pay entrance fee ($30 per vehicle or part of a pass) at park boundaries. It's almost an hour drive from Moab, so try to sleep in one of the nearby campgrounds if you don't want to get up very early.

From parking, it's about 0.5km to the arch.

• Dennis Banks.

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After Bryce Canyon exploration and our brief stint with the cold we went on to Moab, UT. The gateway town to both Arches and Canyonlands-Island in the sky National Parks. On our first day we decided to tackle the popular destinations and visited one of the most famous geological formations, the Mesa Arch of Canyonlands. There is a pretty short hike to get to the arch which is actually not as huge as I envisioned it but spectacular nonetheless. The only problem is the number of people at location, being one of the most photographed locations in Utah and perhaps southwest itself it's pretty popular even on a cold December morning. Thankfully I am early enough to get a decent spot, I heard some photographer to my left camped out in the location since 4 am for a sunset at 7am.

Anyways we had a nice time talking to fellow photographers about the locations and had a blast sharing tips regarding techniques. I made this pano shot once everyone started to leave after the sun burst through the horizon. This is a four shot panorama of the whole arch, with the early morning sun providing amazing light on the valley below.

• Guru Nanak…

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Now let's move on to the customary shot of mesa arch, the sunburst through the arch just as the sun breaks the horizon. I had actually prepared for this a bit and through the use of this amazing app called photopills knew that the winter sun will rise to the right of the arch. So while most people were clamoring to get to the left of the arch, there were only a couple to the right side. Problem with staying to the left was that once the sun comes out you will only have a few minutes for sunburst as the arch is more open and the rising sun will soon overpower everything, while on the left side the arch opening is narrow so we had more flexibility to shoot the sunstar.

The one thing that surprised me most about the arch was how small it actually is, its tiny. Most of the photographers there were actually using fisheye lenses, I believe to accentuate the width of the arch and to get the whole thing in a single frame. But small or not this was a stunning sigh albeit a little crowded.

Mesa Arch, Moab

USA 2011 - Canyonlands

Canyonlands National Park