As a landscape photographer, you often get to travel to some absolutely gorgeous locations and, if you are lucky, get to watch them in perfect conditions. Coastal fog rolling into a redwood forest, massive sequoias in snow, Yosemite after a storm are all great examples of this, and it is hard to pick a favorite. But if someone presses me, I guess my pick would be sunrise at either a desert or a mountain. I especially cherish our desert golden hour shoots, especially when it's at a location like Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. This tiny state Park will rival any other park in the US southwest in beauty, and I was glad I managed to shoehorn a visit into our tightly scheduled trip to Utah.
I still remember the morning that day. We planned to make a quick trip to the park before starting our long drive to SoCal. But the stunning nature of the views surprised us, and we ended up spending quite a lot more time than what we budgeted. I was a little suspicious about getting any colors in the sky as there was a lot of cloud cover. Sunrises are usually not that stark as sunsets in my experience, and as the dawn neared, warm pastel tones filled the sky. Then the sun broke through and painted the rock formations in warm golden light: just a beautiful location and fantastic conditions.