Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

17th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Altered Images
A morning on Mars.

Woke up in the back of the Jeep at 4am, grabbed my chipotle out of the cooler, and started my 1 hour drive from Arches NP to Canyonlands NP for sunrise. I was so tired from waking up at 4am the morning prior at the Grand Canyon but my excitement and adrenaline was coursing through my body. Once I got to the trail head for the arch it was about a 20 min hike through the dark until I reached the overlook. One of the most amazing things to me about driving into a national park in the pitch black is not having any idea what your surroundings look like until the sun starts to rise. For Canyonlands, it was like slowing finding out you had driven into a secret part of Mars.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2019
Date Uploaded: 11.2019
Photo Location: Moab, Utah, United States of America
Camera: ILCE-7M3
Copyright: © Nathan Rumbaugh