The Mittens Overlook

Author's Comments

There is a photograph of this view that exists in everyone's memory before they arrive. The two mittens, the third butte to the right, the desert floor stretching away in red. You have seen it on calendars and book covers and screensavers your whole life, and the strange thing about standing at the railing is how little the reality differs from the version you already carry. That is rare. Most famous views disappoint a little. This one does not. I prefer winter here. The angle of the sunrise shifts south, and the first light hits the eastern faces of the buttes at a rake that summer cannot give you. The air is cleaner. The crowds, while still real, are thinner than in October when the tour buses run heavy. Arrive in the dark. The railing fills quickly, and the tripod positions at the far ends of the overlook are the ones worth claiming - they let you compose with one mitten dominant rather than centering the scene symmetrically, which is the trap most people fall into. The moment to wait for is not actually sunrise itself. It is the four or five minutes just before, when the sky has gone from black to a deep cobalt and the buttes are beginning to register color but have not yet ignited. The contrast is gentler then. The image holds together. Once the sun is fully up the light goes harsh fast, and the photograph everyone makes is the one taken in the eight minutes around first light. Stay after. Most of the railing empties by seven thirty. The side light at eight is its own quieter photograph, and you will have it nearly to yourself.

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