Sandstone Gauntlet

Sandstone Gauntlet landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Otherworldly angles and striations form a narrow gauntlet within a slot canyon in northern Arizona.

Details: Eroded sandstone is one of the most amazing materials from which natural sculptures are carved, and slot canyons are absolutely full of formations of all kinds. The erosion cuts through many layers, each laid down with its striations at a  little different angle, a phenomenon very noticeable in this scene. The narrow bit of sand, about two feet wide here, is the passage through the canyon. Simply incredible to experience these wonders!

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Secret Passage

Secret Passage landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A sliver of silver light illuminates a deep crevice of waving sandstone walls in black and white.

Details: In some portions of Arizona’s sandstone slot canyons, the walls are actually wider at the bottom than the top giving them an otherworldly appearance and the impression that you’re traveling through a secret passage under the earth. Only the noontime sun hits the walls with direct light, and even then shadows are everywhere. This image is beautiful in color, but I love the way the black and white accentuates the textures and shadows.

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Mystical Bend

Mystical Bend landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Sun and shadows play on sandstone waves and red sand inviting one further into the narrow canyon.

Details: Arizona’s slot canyons are often a couple stories tall but only a few feet wide. Their walls twist into fantastical shapes with beautiful colors and striations around every bend. This image tries to capture the inviting and mystical feel of these canyons through the interplay of light, shadow, color, walls and sand.

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Dawn Breaking at the Bend

Dawn Breaking at the Bend landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The morning sun bathes the rim of Horseshoe Bend in orange light as the Colorado River passes by in the shadows below.

Details: Horseshoe Bend is an icon of the American West, and like many places, its glory is really on display at sunset and sunrise. After spending an evening here to catch the sun setting behind the bend, I set out before dawn the next morning to catch the sunrise. It was amazing watching the first beams of light break the horizon and turn the Vermillion Cliffs in the background a beautiful bright orange. I love how the still water reflects the sliver of the bright edges of the rim.

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Peeking Through the Crevice

 

Peeking Through the Crevice landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The sun shines through a tiny crevice illuminating the beautiful carved red walls of a sandstone slot canyon in Arizona.

Details: the sandstone slot canyons of northern Arizona are a photographer’s dream with stunning and impossible looking compositions everywhere you look, especially up. Even a few minutes of time can change a scene dramatically including this one where the sun peeks through a tiny crack at just the right moment to be captured in this dramatic composition of rocky waves and colors.

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Emerging from the Rock

 

Emerging from the Rock landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A graceful silhouette with flowing hair of sandstone emerges from flowing walls of carved sandstone in a slot canyon in Arizona.

Details: Arizona’s slot canyons of sandstone are narrow, colorful and spectacular! While many of the walls look like striated waves, some feature dramatic formations resembling human and animal forms. The midday sun shining into the canyon helps illuminate this amazing arch that might otherwise blend into the surrounding walls.

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Sun Through the Thumb

Sun Through the Thumb landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The rays of the rising sun shine through the thumb of the East Mitten in Monument Valley, Arizona as West Mitten looks on.

Details: This was an amazing morning. It was freezing cold, but the cloudless sky offered the promise of seeing the sun as it first broke the horizon. I picked my spot to catch the sun as it transited briefly between the thumb and fingers of East Mitten where it was visible for maybe a minute or two. I love the layered colors along the horizon that the sun illuminated in this image.

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Stormy Sandstone Sea

 

Stormy Sandstone Sea landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Light and shadow on waves of red and purple sandstone resembling a tossing sea.

Details: the slot canyons of northern Arizona are incredible. The narrow openings cause the light and shadows to fall in unique and dramatic ways that change throughout the day and accentuate the already mesmerizing lines and flowing curves of the sandstone. These are truly magical places!

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Snowcapped Hoodoos

Snowcapped Hoodoos landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Brilliant orange hoodoos reach through the snow to glow in the springtime sun at Bryce Canyon National Park.

Details: Bryce Canyon National Park is just one of those places that so unique it’s tough to describe. This image zooms in to capture the details of a few of the tens of thousands of “hoodoos” carved by the elements over time. Each section of hoodoos has a unique feel and coloration from white to orange to red making it a photographer’s dream. This image was captured from the Rim Trail near Inspiration Point.

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Last Light Over Horseshoe Bend

Last Light Over Horseshoe Bend

The last rays of the setting sun retreat behind the vermillion cliffs surrounding iconic Horseshoe Bend.

Details: Horseshoe Bend, part of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona, is an iconic American landmark for good reason. The bend in the Colorado River 1,000 feet below is dramatic, the cliffs are steep and carved, and the color is simply sublime. A couple times a year, in early spring and fall, the sun sets directly down the peninsula in the center of the horseshoe, and if you catch it at the perfect moment, it douses the camera with a perfect diminished light that still allows the details of the canyon to shine through. I felt blessed to be there at just such a time!

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Tear in the Stone Curtain

Crack in the Curtain

Light runs down a curtain of red sandstone in a slot canyons of the American Southwest.

Details: The area along the Arizona and Utah border is known for its narrow sandstone slot canyons, carved by the elements into elaborate and ornate shapes. While the canyon walls are orange in color, water marks and shadows create beautiful hues of red and purple that change every few minutes with the angle of the sun. I love how the sun plays on the top rocks in this shot while still leaving shadows and purple hues deep in the canyon.

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Mittens Shadow

Mittens Shadow

The shadow of the West Mitten rises against the East Mitten at sunset in this iconic western scene.

Details: Most are familiar with this iconic scene from the American Southwest, but there are only a few weeks a year where the setting sun places the shadow of West Mitten in the middle of East Mitten. A few days earlier, it would have covered almost the entirety of the mitten, but I love this view where the shadow is clear without blocking the beautiful red emanating from East Mitten.

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Teton Morning Mirror

Teton Morning Mirror landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The calm, shallow waters of String Lake reflect the morning light on Teewinot and the Teton Range.

Details: the long and shallow String Lake lies to the north of popular Jenny Lake. The waters are sheltered among the trees making it not only a great place to catch reflections of the jagged peaks but also a great place to find gnarled bits of driftwood among the granite rocks that surround the lake. This image was taken about an hour after sunrise when the eastern bank still lies in shadow.

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Rustic and Regal

Rustic and Regal landscape photo by Dan Bourque

An old homestead barn is dwarfed by the majesty of Grand Teton on a late summer morning.

Details: The Moulton Barns are icons of Grand Teton National Park. They stand as a reminder of the early Mormon settlers to the area, and the surrounding terrain and vegetation shows why the farms and ranches ultimately gave way to preservation and tourism. While others have certainly captured this scene in more dramatic conditions, I still love this image – taken with a zoom lens – because it puts the lonely John Moulton Barn in perspective with its surroundings and majestic backdrop.

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Walls of Mordor

 

Walls of Mordor landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The last rays of the setting sun illuminate the cloud-topped jagged peaks of the Teton Range.

Details: when my son first saw the Teton Range, he said “they look like fairy tale mountains,” and this image shows why. Like something out of an epic fable, the glacier-carved peaks of the range rise at dramatic angles showing off their jagged edges and deep valleys. This shot captures Teewinot, a cloud-topped Grand Teton, and Mount Owen on the far side of Cascade Canyon from Jenny Lake. The Ansel Adams inspired black-and-white just seemed fitting for this picture.

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Portrait of Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

Portrait of Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

Morning light captures the green waters of the Yellowstone River cascading over the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Details: The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River is perhaps the most beautiful and iconic scenic feature in Yellowstone National Park as tremendous volumes of water cascade hundreds of feet into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone whose rocks give the park its name. The canyon walls are steep, and the falls face just north of due east making late morning a perfect time to capture the brilliant white waters and mist of the falls.

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Barn and Beauty

Barn and Beauty landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A tired homesteader’s barn sits quietly in the morning light with Grand Teton as a backdrop.

Details: The Moulton Barns in Grand Teton National Park are somewhat legendary in the photography world, so while I’m not breaking any new ground photographically here, it’s a right of passage to add my image to the mix. I love how the morning light brings out the texture in the old wood on the T.A. Moulton barn, and I love how the crystal clear blue sky contrasts with the yellowing grass of August.

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Reflections of Light and Shadow

Reflections of Light and Shadow landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Glassy waters of a beaver pond reflect playful morning clouds painting the Teton Range in light and shadow.

Details: This image is a good reminder of why patience is required in photography. I joined three other photographers at Schwabachers Landing in Grand Teton National Park to catch the first light on the Tetons. Conditions were iffy as a layer of clouds threatened to block the sunrise, and sure enough, we got just a few seconds of pink alpenglow before the range was engulfed in shadow. The other three photographers packed up an left, but I thought “just maybe” as the clouds were rapidly shifting. It took about 30 minutes of waiting, but the sun peeked through, and soon the clouds were providing this amazing display of light and shadow on Grand Teton.

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Grand Prismatic Sunset

Grand Prismatic Sunset landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The shallow ridged pools surrounding Grand Prismatic Spring reflect the sunset in Yellowstone National Park.

Details: Grand Prismatic Spring is one of the main attractions of Yellowstone National Park. While its amazing colors (including the turquoise reflected in the steam in this image) can only truly be seen from above, a ground-level view reveals the intricate details in the colorful shallow pools surrounding the main spring. Sunset adds another layer of light and shadow that really brings out the details.

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Alpenglow at Oxbow Bend

Alpenglow at Oxbow Bend landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Oxbow Bend of the Snake River reflects the early morning alpenglow of Mount Moran in the Teton Range.

Details: The Snake River meanders through Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Oxbow Bend is known for its wildlife, still waters and beautiful reflections of stunning Mount Moran, all of which can be seen in this image. An American white pelican swims lazily across the serene waters, and in the full-size image, a sandhill crane can be barely spotted against the flanks of Moran. The Tetons are distinctly gray, but for the first few minutes of sunrise, the red-shifted light of the sun on the horizon paints them a distinctive red, an effect known as “alpenglow.”

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Giants and Still Waters

Giants and Still Waters landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The craggy peaks of the Teton Range are reflected in the still alpine waters of Taggart Lake.

Details: Grand Teton National Park is full of wonderful alpine lakes, and the calm of morning makes for some incredible scenes of majestic mountains reflected on still waters surrounded by beautiful forest. Taggart Lake, on the southern side of the park, is one such body of water that can be reached by a hike that is well worth the effort on a still day like this beautiful clear day in August. The peaks from left to right are Nez Perce, Grand Teton and Teewinot.

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Majesty Unveiled

Majesty Unveiled landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Morning mists part to reveal the Teton Range in all its glory reflected in still waters.

Details: The Teton Range in Wyoming is one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in North America. The peaks rise 7,000 feet above plains dotted with lakes big and small. This image of Grand Teton was captured from an inlet of Jackson Lake near Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park just after dawn on a cool August morning. The prominent peak is Grand Teton with Teewinot to the left. The shoulder of Mount Moran climbs into the clouds on the right edge of the image. The lake water level was dropping, and just two days after this image was taken, this picture was no longer possible.

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Storm Over Sylvan Lake

Storm Over Sylvan Lake landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Summer storm clouds threaten to erase a perfect reflection of the granite shores of Sylvan Lake in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Details: Sylvan Lake, situated in the Needles area of the Black Hills in Custer State Park, is an amazing and picturesque place. Summer brings storms, though, and this one was brewing early. Thankfully the wind held off for another 10 minutes before creating waves and erasing this scene.

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Purple Flowers in the Black Hills

Purple Flowers in the Black Hills

Purple flowers stand before a giant granite spire in Custer State Park, South Dakota.

Details: Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota has different types of beauty wherever you look. In this case, a small cluster of purple flowers adorned a grassy hill in the granite-strewn landscape near Legion Lake on a fine July day. The nearby forest cast a perfect shadow on the flowers to capture their detail while highlighting the granite spire in light and shadow.

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Prairie Shadows

Prairie Shadows landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A herd of American bison graze on green grass as the long shadows of the South Dakota sunset settle in.

Details: Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a wonderful place to see American bison in their natural habitat of rolling hills and prairie grass. An unusually wet summer has made for greener prairies than normal for July making for some content bison and some amazing evening clouds.

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Legion Lake Reflections

Legion Lake Reflections

Formations of granite reflecting the light of the setting sun are themselves reflected in the calm waters of Legion Lake in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Details: Custer State Park is THE most beautiful state park I’ve ever visited. In addition to wonderful rolling hills full of wildlife, the park encompasses the “Needles”, an area of majestic granite spires springing from the Black Hills. Legion Lake lies in the middle of Custer State Park on the edge of the Needles, and if you can find a time when the wind is calm, you’re rewarded with amazing reflection scenes like this one.

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Black Hills Silhouettes

Black Hills Silhouettes landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Sunset reveals purple layers of the Black Hills of South Dakota with the faces of Mount Rushmore looking on.

Details: the Black Hills are a beautiful place, and when you get a chance to sit high up on a ridge and enjoy the sunset, they get even more beautiful. This image was taken about 10 miles east of Mount Rushmore, and I love how the long lens accentuates the colorful layers of the hills.

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Santa Monica Mountains Panorama

Santa Monica Mountains panoramic landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A brilliant blue sky hangs dramatically over the golden rocks of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Details: Some places really surprise you. The Santa Monica Mountains are just minutes away from greater Los Angeles, but their rugged beauty is a world apart from the bustling city. This panorama of the tallest peaks in the range was taken on the way to hike Sandstone Peak. The Pacific Ocean is just visible in the background.

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Grand Canyon Gold

The setting sun turns the Grand Canyon into shadows and streaks of rocky gold.

Details: The Grand Canyon is absolutely incredible. It’s even more incredible at sunrise and sunset. It’s even more incredible with unique streaking clouds. Patience paid off, and I was fortunate enough to have all the elements for this shot from the south rim just before sunset. The Colorado River is just visible in the shadows.

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Desert Contrast

 

Desert Contrast landscape panorama by Dan BourqueA desert storm leaves a contrast of colors and climates at sunset over Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

Details: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Nevada is one of my favorite places in the west because it’s a land of contrasts. In this scene, a storm has just covered the tall mountains on the right with a layer of snow, while the desert floor remains warm with color. This is a composite carefully stitched from six individual photos to capture this entire dramatic scene from east to west.

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Arizona Twilight

Arizona Twilight landscape photo by Dan Bourque

Magnificent rock formations near Sedona, Arizona burn red in the last rays of the day.

Details: Sedona, Arizona is one of the most beautiful places in the American West, and the red buttes of Coconino National Forest surround the town. This image of Courthouse Butte (center) and Bell Rock (right) were taken high up on a National Forest trail south of Sedona just as the sun was setting. All but the very tip of Bell Rock is already covered in shadow from the hills to the west. The dot in the sky is the moon, made smaller by the wide-angle lens needed to soak in this magnificent view.

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Last Light in the Canyon

 

Last Light in the Canyon landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The last rays of the setting sun set the walls of the Grand Canyon ablaze in orange.

Details: The Grand Canyon is beautiful anytime but mesmerizing at sunset. As the sun sinks to the horizon, it turns the canyon walls from reddish white into brilliant orange and gold. This was taken about two minutes before the sun went below the horizon with the rim painted orange while the deep parts of the canyon fade into hues of blue and purple. A few small patches of snow in the foreground reveal that even though the scene is warm, it is still winter in the high Arizona desert. This is one of my favorite photos I’ve taken because of the great colors in the sky and canyon, the stark contrasts between light and shadow, and the composition of the walls, foreground and the line of the deep canyon far below.

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Canyon After Sunset

Canyon After Sunset landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A pink sky overlooks the Grand Canyon filled with blue and red hues after a winter sunset.

Details: The Grand Canyon is a magical place any time of day in any season–it’s one of the seven natural wonders of the world for good reason! This image was taken on a February evening about 20 minutes after sunset. Just after the last light departed from the low clouds, the canyon turned from oranges to deep shades of purple and blue. At the center of the photo, a tiny reflection can be seen from the Colorado River far below. A tiny bit of snow still clings to the eastern wall of Pima Point to the left.

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Virgin River in Zion’s Shadow

Virgin River in Zion's Shadow landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The shallow waters of the Virgin River run cold and clear through Zion National Park, Utah.

Details: Zion National Park is one of the most beautiful places in the entire United States with its deep, narrow canyons and marbled red and white rock walls. Running through the main part of Zion is the Virgin River. The light conditions were perfect for this shot with the creek in shadow and the mountains in the later afternoon sunlight.

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High Desert Sunset

High Desert Sunset landscape photo by Dan Bourque

A world of contrasts is captured at sunset in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada.

Details: This is one of my personal favorites because it captures the extremes of the high desert in beautiful Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Nevada. The passing storm has left a layer of snow over the peaks of the Red Rock Escarpment, but down below, the desert is still warm and dry. The sky seems to reflect this transition with the peaks covered in deep blues and the desert in the pinks and purples of sunset.

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Gathering Storm over the Desert

Gathering Storm over the Desert landscape photo by Dan BourqueBrooding storm clouds reflect the setting sun over Red Rock Canyon in Nevada.

Details: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is an amazing place, especially when there’s a storm nearby adding an amazing sky to the amazing rocks. This one was moving fast, and the scattered clouds were an incredible mix of light and dark as they shadowed each other and reflected the sun with the red cast of sunset. The colorful rock formation is the area known as “Calico” for obvious reasons.

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Zion from the Edge of Space

Zion from the Edge of Space landscape photo by Dan Bourque

The deep red canyons of Zion National Park as seen from miles above.

Details: I’ve been trying to get this shot for years. I fly between Denver and Las Vegas fairly often, and we always pass just south of Zion National Park. I’ve been thinking this would be a great vantage point for a picture because the canyons are so amazing from this height, and a vertical shot has a sort of “edge of space” feel. It’s taken several tries, but the weather, window, sun, contrails and route all worked out nicely for this one.

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Lightning and the Elephant

Lightning and the Elephant landscape lightning photo by Dan BourqueLightning bursts over Elephant Rock at night in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

Details: Valley of Fire, northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, is one of the neatest State Parks I’ve ever been to–it’s chock full of red sandstone formations and arches like aptly named Elephant Rock seen here. I came to this spot hoping for some good Milky Way shots, but an unexpected evening storm made an even more amazing backdrop for this cool scene. This image took nearly an hour of patient shooting of long exposures to get the dramatic bolt seen here. Because the night was pitch black in-between strikes, I used a technique called “light painting” to capture the detail of the rock formation–it’s a manual process and tedious when you’re taking dozens of long-exposure shots, but in this case it was well worth it!

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Valley of Fire and Lightning

Valley of Fire and Lightning landscape photo by Dan BourqueA lightning bolt adds powerful color to the sunset over Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

Details: Shooting lightning is an exercise in both speed and patience, but the results can be very rewarding. Because of the low light, I was able to take long exposures and hope for a good strike. There were many failures before this success! Believe it or not, there is very little color manipulation in the image–the lightning was indeed pink which made it a perfect compliment to the sunset! This scene was captured on a July evening at Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park near Lake Mead.

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Surreal Skies over Death Valley

Surreal Skies over Death Valley landscape photo by Dan BourqueBrilliant pink and purple clouds illuminate the skies at sunset over Death Valley National Park, California.

Details: Sometimes I have a hard time believing the beauty of what I’m seeing, and this June evening in Death Valley National Park was one of them. Looking at the skies an hour before, I didn’t think it was going to be a good sunset, but once the sun got under the clouds, it just kept illuminating more of them in brilliant pinks and oranges all around (this is looking south). My jaw was dropped for nearly 20 minutes before the color finally departed. The “rocks” in the foreground are actually salt formations in the area known as the Devils Golf Course which lies below sea level.

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Colorful Death Valley

Colorful Death Valley panorama landscape photo by Dan BourqueThe setting sun momentarily transforms mountain peaks and skies with splashes of bold color in Death Valley National Park, California.

Details: Just an hour before, the clouds completely obscured the sun (which was nice on such a hot day in June), but just before setting, rays of the sun lit the Death Valley’s eastern mountains in red and painted the clouds. The unique salt formations in the foreground belong to the so-called Devils Golf Course near Badwater, the lowest point in North America. This image was captured in HDR to preserve the delicate highlight and shadow detail in this scene.

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Storm Clouds over the Garden Wall

Storm Clouds over Logan Pass

Dark clouds cast a tapestry of light and shadows over the Garden Wall at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park.

Details: a brief ray of light breaks through the clouds of a summer storm gathering over Logan Pass, Montana along Going to the Sun Road bringing out the color and detail of this stunning landscape.

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Brooding St Mary

Brooding St Mary

Sun streams through stormy clouds over Upper St Mary’s Lake in Glacier National Park

Details: I visited St Mary’s Lake several times over the course of a week, and every time the lake displayed a distinctively different mood. On this summer day, the sun fights with storm clouds to illuminate the turquoise waters and majestic peaks.

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Avalanche Gorge

Avalanche Gorge

Brilliant turquoise waters tumble through the moss-covered walls of Avalanche Gorge in Glacier National Park

Details: a cloudy day was perfect for taking a long exposure of this distinctive cataract on the western side of Glacier National Park in Montana.

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  • All images and graphics are the property of the photographer and should not be used without permission. All Images copyright Dan Bourque