Recently, I felt like a hike.  I needed to get out and do something different from the everyday grind of work and housecleaning.  Finding a good place to go for a hike while it’s still light is fine this time of year.  I can go hiking at 8 PM and get a short hike in before dark falls.  On this hike, I was in for an unexpected surprise as a red moon rises.

So, I’ve been working on getting the full lay of Bryce Canyon.  There’s lots of trails to hike and I still have as yet to see all that I can see at this national park.  This time, I chose the Fairyland trail.  I hadn’t been there before and wanted to see what that trail had to offer.  The trail was too long for us to hike in daylight so we went partway and came back as dark was falling.

As we rounded a corner up close to the rim, I noticed a lone individual up the trail holding a camera.  She was taking pictures in our direction.  I also noticed that she put her camera down as soon as we were visible.  This means she didn’t want us in her shot.  That was a relief.

When I got up to her location and turned around, I immediately saw what she was shooting.  There was a red moon rising over the eastern horizon.  There was a lot of haze that late afternoon which turned the moon red for the duration it was shinning through it.  I didn’t have much time but I got to work with my camera immediately. As the red moon rises, it also lost its red color.

This nice lady happened to be an off-duty ranger of the park.  We had a nice chat about photography and the national park while we were shooting.  It’s rare when I get to have a conversation like this with another photographer.  I’m more of a lone wolf.

Once the moon rose above the level of the haze, it returned to its regular bright yellow to white color and we proceeded back up the trail to our vehicles.  This was a short and unexpected photo shoot but I came back with a couple of great and unique landscape photos out of the excursion.