South Rim Trail, Cedar Breaks National Monument After Dark, July 16, 2023

Hiked the entirety of the South Rim Trail on Sunday, July 16, starting just before sunset. The first shot of my earlier post was from this trip.

Main goal was to get this first shot. I had walked here about four years ago, during a full moon, and wanted to come back when the sky was dark and the heart of Milky Way was well-placed. But on the last few attempts, when I was able to get out there, monsoon rains made hiking the South Rim trail impossible. So I ended driving up to Brian Head for my Milky Way shots, which actually worked out nicely.

I hiked to the end of the trail, and saw the Bartizan, but it was too dark by then to get a decent shot of that. I then backtracked to Spectra Point and waited for it to get dark. At this time of year, that's not until around 11pm local time. Happy with the result!

I'll be making at least one more trip back to Cedar Breaks this year, but with the monsoon picking up, who knows which hikes may be possible? At any rate, we'll see how things go.