I finally had the chance to go see a photogenic location which has been on my list of projects for a while.  Now that distance isn’t the hurdle that it used to be, I’ve been itching to go see this location for myself.  When I had some time off recently, I took advantage of it.  We made the two and a half hour drive out to the spot.  I wasn’t expecting to come back with this.  I return with a beautiful photo of bends in the river.

Ok, to be fair, I knew that I had a chance of coming back with a photo which would become a permanent member of my portfolio, but I’ve had plenty of scouting missions where that hasn’t happened.  So I hedged my bets there and came back an unexpected winner.

The location chosen for this photo shoot was nothing less than the famous Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River in Arizona.  We call these bends in the river meandering in geologic terms.  It’s a highly popular location with landscape photographers but this was my chance to try the subject matter for myself.

Thanks to some weather, it wasn’t always an easy trip down.  There were a couple of rough patches which left us wondering if it would be a good idea to turn back.  Still we persevered.

When we arrived at the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (I didn’t even know this existed nor that Lake Powell was a part of it as well), I got a bit concerned.  There were heavy clouds overhead which threatened more snow.  They also all but blocked off the sunlight I so desperately needed for a good landscape photo.

We really go worried when we found an offsite parking lot for a tram empty.  A local informed us that it was shut down for the weather.  We were hoping that she meant the tram and not the park.  We decided to chance it and head up the road a short ways from Page to see if, by chance, the park was open.  Thankfully, we were rewarded for our attempt.

The park was indeed open, despite the construction so obviously in progress.  The parking lot, however, was flooded and fun to wade through.  The subsequent hike was even more fun as there were some steep uphill/downhill slopes which were covered in sand/mud and slush/snow/ice.  We found that our footing was difficult several times on our way to the cliff and back.

Once we arrived at the cliff where we could best view the bend in the river, the entire scene opened up.  There was some fog or mist on the river.  Also, we caught the tail end of golden hour light reflecting off the river.  Thanks to the clouds, golden hour ended much sooner than normal.  Still, I managed to get some photos in with that golden light.

The traditional view of this landscape scene is to feature the entire river bend in the shot.  I tried that but found that I wanted to add some foreground.  Thankfully, there were some rocks jetting out in certain places.  If I positioned myself and my camera just right, I could work them into the photo for that desired foreground interest.

The snow, the angle, and the weather conditions made for a much better photo than I was hoping for.  Most especially, off of this initial trip to the park.  I’ll be making more trips out to this location once the weather warms up.  Maybe the hike will be easier once I’m no longer having to hike in mud and slush.  These bends in the river call me back.