Tony Kuyper Photography


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Thanksgiving Day Arch
This arch probably started out as a pothole. Standing water dissolved the cement holding the sandstone together and wind blew the loosened grains away. Eventually the pothole got deeper and wider until it broke through the side wall of the canyon. The arch remained suspended as wind and water continued to enlarge the opening leaving the hanging arch that exists today.
I had been visiting this particular location from time to time anticipating that it would eventually be a great sunset shot. The perfect conditions happened on Thanksgiving Day 1995. The glow of the arch is created in the following manner. The sun is positioned by the season to shine directly up the canyon below the arch at sunset. Its warm orange light shines on a large red rock wall underneath the arch. The light reflecting from the wall has its warmth further enhanced by the fact that the wall is composed of similarly colored sandstone. This now doubly warm light illuminates the arch, also composed of the warm-colored sandstone, from below. The reddish sandstone arch bathed in this warm light results in this wonderful glow.