A Dawn at Bryce

Spend and day or two at Bryce Canyon, listening to other visitors' reactions and a phrase you will probably hear a lot is: "I think this is even better than than the Grand Canyon!". I wouldn't argue with that opinion. Although the Grand Canyon is much larger and is definitely one of the wonders of the world to be seen by everyone at least once if possible, Bryce is equally impressive with it's intricate hoodoo amphitheaters and multi-colored layers and textures. Even better, it's very easy to hike down into the canyon where you really get the sense of being in another world.
For this shot, I was just below the canyon rim at dawn on a July morning. This especially colorful sunrise started to happen while I was scoping out angles back towards the hoodoos and was lucky enough to be on an outcropping where there were these great gnarly old trees to use as a foreground against the sky. Definitely one of those situations where I end up running around like a madman for the brief ten minutes or so that the light and sky are perfect.

Processed twice from the RAW image file; once for the sky and once for the foreground, then merged to preserve detail.

"Canyon Dawn"-Utah, 2007