Colorado river at horseshoe bend

Horseshoe bend is the name given to a meander of the Colorado River, near the town of Page, Arizona. Red stone, clear blue sky and a green river composes this superb landscape.

At the time of the picture, 2008, this place was not so known as it is currently. In our case, we were in holidays travelling with friends along the USA national parks. We stopped at Page in order to visit the Antelope Canyon (My best of the year panorama) and also the impressive Rainbow bridge natural arch (we missed the wave location).

To have a look at Horseshoe bend was only a secondary option, we tried it because it was very easy to reach it from the road. This was one of the major suprises of the whole trip, we remember it many times. To overlook the river from 500 meters above, without barriers was very impressive, like to be on the top of a skycraper building.

I've selected this panorama because when the shot was done the time was near perfect, the sun was on the top, on July, and no shadows on the clifts. It was taken without tripod. To say that I was not able to stand with my back close to the cliff, for such shots I felt on the ground and extend my arm with the camera to the clift, shooting something that I was not able to see with my own eyes. Later, in post processing I put everything together.

USA-Canada / USA-Arizona

Lat: 36° 52' 47.1" N
Long: 112° 31' 37.498" W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

Canon EOS 40D, Tokina fisheye 10-17, handheld, PTGui, Phtotoshop