As you may recall, we left the Arizona Golden Canyon dispersed camp site after some pretty amazing photography. The sunrises and sunsets across the desert plain just never became tiring.

Upon our departure, we decided we would venture up through Sedona and stay for the night on our way to Kanab UT just south of Flagstaff.

Using Campendium, our preferred campsite location app, we found two spots in the Coconino National Forest just outside of Flagstaff.

We arrived shortly before dark. We had enough time for a walk through the pine and juniper forests and were overwhelmed by the change in scenery migrating from flat desert, surrounded by brown mountain ranges to the green coniferous forests on the side of the mountains. The smell of pine, being a florist at heart, provided me a MUCH needed sentimental boost given the change in life for me around Christmastime. I love Juniper at Christmas and this forest was FULL of it.

Snow was on the ground in patches throughout the forest and again, it was a pretty radical change of not only scenery but also in temperature.

Never the less, we got a 3 mile hike in down the forest road with Watson in tow and upon coming back enjoyed a quick meal and headed to bed.

Upon waking, I stepped out to check the landscape, and while it was dark, the sky was beginning to show some color as the sun was on it’s way up.

Knowing what I know, I had a pretty good inclination that in fact the sunrise would be outstanding.

The height of the tree line would make it impossible for me to do any photography using my Nikon DSLR get up.

But…the drone would allow me to get above the trees and do some work.

I was actually surprised once I launched at just how spectacular the entire horizon was in it’s pinks, magentas, purples and blues. While what I was seeing on the ground, under the trees was magnificent, it simply didn’t compare to the view from above.

I took a lot of video footage first. That was the priority, however, there was still a little time left to capture some magnificent stills in panorama fashion.

I thought it would be stellar to share them with you here.

I hope you enjoy. Thanks for being here and following along.

Until next time, see you in Kanab.

rob out