The area around Page, AZ has a number of interesting features and Horseshoe Bend is one of them. I’ve wanted to photograph this location on the Colorado River for some time.
There are a number of horseshoe like bends in the Colorado but this is one of the more dramatic and colorful spots. The color in the sandstone canyon walls is quite vivid in the right light and the riverbanks have lots of vegetation to contrast with the red rock. This shot was taken around mid morning so that there was adequate light in the canyon. I tried sunrise and sunset shoots with little success. This location faces west so a sunset could be dramatic if the clouds cooperate. The days we were there the sky was clear at sunset so no luck on that front.
Page, AZ is on Lake Powell and was created in 1957 to support the building of the Glen Canyon dam. It housed the construction workers for the several years it took to build the dam and then built itself into a tourist destination for the new Lake Powell after the workers all left. It provided the perfect base camp to explore some of what the surrounding area has to offer, including Horseshoe Bend.
The parking area to the overlook is just south of town and easy to get to. It’s about a 3/4 mile hike each way to get to the rim. From there it’s straight down with no railings so if you’re afraid of heights this one may make you a little nervous. To get the image above you need to have your tripod right up to the edge. A wide angle lens is necessary to get it all in as well. The wider the better. One other thing to mention is you need to deal with lots of people.
This unfortunately has become a stop for the tour buses. They come sometimes two and three at a time unloading 30-50 people each. It’s a little unnerving to watch these tourists come right up to the rim, turn around with their backs to the cliff and pull out the selfie stick and fire away. They’re only inches away from a 1000 foot plus dropoff. Their travel companions all want to get photos too so they take turns getting their picture taken with the canyon right behind them. After about 30 minutes they all hike back to the bus and on to the next stop. It’s quite a spectacle. Oh well. Back to the featured image.
As I mentioned we tried both sunrise and sunset shoots. The sunrise shoot was interesting because we arrived while it was still dark. Hiking out to the rim was fine but once we got close it was a bit surreal. You knew the edge was there but you couldn’t really see it because there was nothing for your headlamp to shine on. Looking out over the canyon was just empty black. Needless to say I stayed a little further from the edge until it got light out. One nice thing though about the sunrise was the lack of people. It was very quiet. Unfortunately we had no clouds that morning so it didn’t produce the image I was looking for.
On our third attempt we were fortunate that we had some clouds. This is the desert after all and clouds don’t happen every day. We also went about mid morning which allowed the light to better fill the entire canyon. I composed the image to include a little bit of foreground rock to give a sense of scale to the image. It really is a long way down. The filtered sunlight also showed the color of the river and it’s sand bars. A polarizer on the lens cut down a lot of the glare from the water to be able to see those. I also added a neutral density filter to create a long exposure to smooth out the water. I bracketed my shots just in case I needed to blend two images together to adequately balance the sky and the foreground.
In post processing I was able to get what I needed from just one exposure. There was enough detail in the sky after I lowered its value to make the image above. I had to do a fair amount of manipulation to the river to pull out the color and sand bars but the information was there to do it in a single image. I wish I could show full resolution images here on the website as there is so much detail in the red canyon walls. These images are only 800 pixels wide whereas the full rez is 7,360 pixels wide. Space limitations and load times just won’t allow for that though.
Despite the tour bus issue I mentioned above, this is still a worthwhile stop. It’s an amazing view and in the right light it’s very photogenic. Definitely would do it again.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 16-35mm @ 16mm. f/11 at 10 sec. 6 stop ND filter. ISO 64.
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