Fading Canyon Light - Colorado National Monument, Colorado

Tucked away near the Colorado - Utah border is a cool National Monument that I try to visit whenever I visit Moab. Located about 20 minutes outside Grand Junction, the 23-mile Rim Rock Road rises 2,000 feet to give visitors to the park great vistas of the surrounding landscape. There are some amazing canyons along the road with sandstone and granite formations that tower above the canyon floor.

I had flown into Grand Junction and planned to shoot sunset and sunrise in the park before heading to Moab. When I landed, the rain started and continued through the afternoon. I was almost ready to hang it up but something told me to at least drive the road and scout out for the next morning. As I started up the road, the weather began to clear and some great golden hour sun began to peek through (you can see the storm in the distance). At one of the pullouts, the sun lit the tops of these formations just right and made it worth the trip.