In bookend visits to Monument Valley in Utah, I made a lot of photos being there for sunset one evening, then sunrise the next morning. I had time during these two forays into this stunning environment to look for other shots besides sweeping landscape photos, like this one with a twisted tree. There was so much movement and texture in this gnarled tree that I wanted to find a way to photograph it that really made it come through the frame. I set my camera on my tripod at its lowest leg extension for a below standing eye level perspective. This eerie tree composed this way as to obscure the beauty of the mesas creating a contrast in visuals.
I do not know if the movie Forrest Gump put this view into my mind, or maybe it was from a time long before, but certainly for years and years I dreamed of seeing this iconic western road view. I believe it to be the signature view from the road of the American West. A road that vanishes and falls and rises into the mesas of Monument Valley that looks alien, futuristic, and ancient at the same time.
I have been to many places around the world, some considered wonders of the world, like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, some hard to reach, like the jungles in Borneo, as well as famous wonders in the U.S. like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. Monument Valley in Utah ranks up there with the most wondrous places I have seen. I bookended my time at Monument Valley first with a sunset visit, then the next morning at 6am with a sunrise explore. The photos you see here are all from that very early even-pre-sunset time in Monument Valley. So early, no one was at the gate to even pay to enter! No one else had yet driven into the valley that morning. I had the view of the two Mittens and Merrick Butte all to myself for awhile.
I spent a bookend of twilight and dawn in Monument Valley in Utah. During the dawn, I met these wild horses, some of whom were just standing staring listlessly with their ribs and hip joints jutting out. Others equally as bony grazed on thorny brush. They seemed to not care about my presence, maybe too hungry? After the horse above had finished munching on that bush, I went and touched it and it hurt my hand even with a gentle touch. How that horse could chew on and eat it is beyond me. Even though it was sad to see them so skinny, it was still special to share the quiet dawn in Monument Valley with them, unexpected friends.
