Gates Pass

Author's Comments

Everyone in Tucson knows about Gates Pass at sunset, and the parking lot tells you so. By the time the sun is twenty minutes from the horizon there is a small crowd along the rock walls, phones up, voices low. I do not mind it. There is something about a place that draws people for the right reason, and the reason here is genuine. The Avra Valley opens westward in a way that feels almost ceremonial, the saguaros along the ridge going to silhouette, Kitt Peak a small dark notch on the far horizon. The photograph most people make is the obvious one, and it is obvious because it works. A wide lens, the valley flattening into bands of dust and light, the saguaros standing up against a sky that goes from gold to pink to that particular Sonoran blue that I have never seen anywhere else. What I have learned is to wait. The strongest light at Gates Pass is not the sunset itself but the ten minutes after, when the valley fills with shadow and the sky still holds color and the saguaros become the entire composition. Long exposures start to make sense here. The desert goes quiet in a way it does not during the day. Come in winter if you can. The air is clearer and the sun sets further south, which puts Kitt Peak more directly in the frame. Arrive early enough to walk a few minutes off the road. The crowd stays close to the parking area, and the ridges on either side are largely empty within five minutes of walking. That is where I usually end up, alone enough, with the whole valley going dark below me.

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