Here Comes The Sun

Factory Butte Near Hanksville, UT

Near Hanksville, UT

HERE COMES THE SUN

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF HERE COMES THE SUN

Serendipity /sĕr″ən-dĭp′ĭ-tē/ - noun

  1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

  2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.

  3. An instance of making such a discovery.

Many people who see this image will believe it to be Factory Butte (outside Hanksville, UT). And they would be right. However, this differs from how it has been photographed in recent years. Ever since Alex Noriega posted his masterpiece Funnel Factory - thousands of photographers (including myself) have traveled far and wide to capture their own version of this mesmerizing formation. And most will try to photograph it before sunrise to capture the blue hue on this red butte.

On a very cold winter morning, I arrived at Factory Butte to photograph the blue hour, but the clouds covered the horizon, and I got skunked. Breakfast at Duke's was a couple of hours away, so I decided to take a nap. 

Something woke me up, and I looked over, and the sun was starting to top the butte, and I thought - WOW, that's pretty cool. Luckily, my tripod and camera were still set up, and I quickly jumped up, turned on the camera, focused, and snapped several images before the sun took over the scene. 

I would rather be lucky than good…

Images and location summary by Tim Wier

 

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DATA POINTS INCLUDED WITH HERE COMES THE SUN SUMMARY

Trail Difficulty - EASY

I rate the difficulty of this trail as a 2 on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being most difficult). This shot is simply point-and-shoot. The only reason for giving this a rating of 2 is the 7-mile drive on a dirt road to this location can be a little bumpy, and the 1/4 track to this location from the dirt road looks dicey (but it's not).

Photography Tips

As mentioned, the shot above was taken just as the sun crested the top of the butte. About 2-3 min after the …

What Lens(es) Do You Need

The shot above was taken @ 131 mm.

GPS Coordinates & Elevation
 

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LOCATION SUMMARIES WRITTEN BY PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Tim Wier