A Month of Sunsets From the Road

As seen from my sixth backpacking campsite, the purple and pink dusk descends upon tranquil Imogene Lake, bringing a touch of winter chill to the Sawtooths.

Sunset is a special time on the road and trail, and seldom am I in a better position to savor daylight’s last moments than when I’m in camp. I got to just about every campsite well before sunset during last month’s road trip to Idaho, so I had many a front-row seat to the show.

In order, here are the prettier sunsets:

The first day on the road was a long tedious drive across Texas — one of only two days I drove into the night — but it offered a nice sunset, as seen from just east of the town of Springlake, Texas.

The sun went behind the mountains surrounding Ouray, Colo., long before it set, so this night’s sunset would be better described as a dusk shot, taken looking down on the town to the north.

My campsite at Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area was perched right on the rim, providing a great seat for the gradual fading of the sky into night.

The fourth day’s sunset was surprisingly nice, given that it had rained almost the entire day, shrouding the Tetons from view. A short walk from my campsite along Jackson Lake led to this view of the stormy mountains and a pleasant, calm reflection.

Yellowstone’s Madison Campground is a typical, industrial campground — high density, heavily impacted, and largely viewless. The setting is a wide, tree-lined portion of Madison Canyon, and the standard view in any direction is of an adjacent campsite. Fortunately, the view up was of the sky and the silhouetted trees.

My last night of car-camping on the road to Idaho was spent at the Grandjean Campground, at the confluence of an unnamed creek and the South Fork Payette River. No mountains were visible from the camp, but the sunset wasn’t bad in their place.

Sunsets from the trail were a little harder to come by. The jagged mountains frequently interjected themselves between my vantage point and the setting sun, and dense stands of tall trees blocked much of the sky. This was the view looking straight up from my first night’s campsite along a waterfall-laden bend of the South Fork Payette River.

I wouldn’t get another good sunset until five nights later, at Imogene Lake (pictured at the top of this post). But that night would start a small string of very pretty, lakefront sunsets.

One of the trip’s most beautiful sunsets occurred at narrow Hidden Lake, which occupies a deep chasm surrounded by the jagged mountains. The sun, setting behind me and the mountains to the west, still lit the very tops of the Sawtooths, but the choppy waters denied a nice reflection. That would have to wait for the next night.

Alpine Lake, one of the Sawtooth’s gems, was the setting for another beautiful sunset, an almost repeat of the previous day’s alpenglow off the toothy peaks, but this time with a reflection in the mirror-still waters, disturbed only by the trout jumping for flies. The next night I camped deep in a forested canyon, so this sunset at Alpine Lake was the last of the backpacking portion of the trip.

Back in civilization, the town of Stanley provided the backdrop for this beautiful sunset high above the distant mountains. It was unfortunately the last good sunset for several days, as rain dominated the skies as I traveled across southern Idaho and eastern Nevada.

I headed to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah on a whim. Instead of staying in a Kanab hotel, I opted instead for what turned out to be the nicest campground I found during the trip. From my campsite, which touched the sagebrush-covered margin of the dune area, the setting sun really brought out the pink colors of the cliffs.

I stayed in the same place on consecutive nights only once during the trip, spending two nights on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Fittingly, the trip’s finest two sunsets occurred there. This was the scene from the first night, as seen from the southern end of the Transept Trail.

Almost as pretty as the day before, the second Grand Canyon sunset brought out the subtle colors of the canyon’s majestic features.

My hotel room in Sedona had a balcony, which provided probably the best seat to any sunset on the trip. Sedona’s famous red rock landmarks put on quite a show.

The final sunset I photographed was from the road circling the mountains of Gila National Forest. This was another drive through darkness night, so I didn’t linger in taking this photo, choosing to watch the sunset from a moving car. The next day’s sunset was pretty, but observed entirely in a rearview mirror. I didn’t photograph it because I didn’t want to stop driving. Nearing home, the sun set as I passed through Lampasas County, Texas, so the trip’s final sunset went unrecorded, but not unappreciated.

Imogene Lake Sunset, SW09-0817-5778R, Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Sawtooth National Forest, Idaho | Springlake Sunset, TX09-0805-4659R, outside Springlake, Texas | Ouray Sunset, CO09-0806-4700R, outside Ouray, Colorado | Flaming Gorge Sunset, UT09-0807-4796R, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Utah | Stormy Teton Sunset, GT09-0808-4896R, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming | Madison Campground Sunset, YE09-0809-4996R, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming | Grandjean Sunset, ID09-0811-5104, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Boise National Forest, Idaho | South Fork Payette River Sunset, SW09-0812-5171R, Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Boise National Forest, Idaho | Hidden Lake Alpenglow, SW09-0818-5926R, Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Boise National Forest, Idaho | Alpine Lake Sunset, SW09-0819-6064R, Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Sawtooth National Forest, Idaho | Stanley Sunset, ID09-0821-6289R, Stanley, Idaho | Coral Pink Sand Dunes Sunset, UT09-0825-6677R, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Utah | First Grand Canyon Sunset, GC09-0826-6825R, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona | Second Grand Canyon Sunset, GC09-0827-7028R, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona | Sedona Sunset, AZ09-0828-7160R, Sedona Arizona | Southwest New Mexico Sunset, NM09-0829-7198R, Grant County, New Mexico | ©2009 Jeff Blaylock

Potentially related posts:

• Sunrises and Sunsets in Big Bend
• Idaho Trip Campsites
• Rainy Day in the Tetons
• Lakes of the Sawtooths, Part 1
• Sedona Celebration
• I Love Me Post, Idaho Edition
• Lakes of the Sawtooths, Part 3