Moonrise Above Mount Charleston Residence

The Story:

Just before Easter of 2012, my Dad flew out to visit me while I was living in Nevada.  Knowing there wasn’t a whole lot in the city that would interest him, I decided to show him a few of the places that I had discovered around Las Vegas.  My favorite of these is the Mount Charleston area in the Spring Mountain recreation area; about an hour northwest of Las Vegas, Mount Charleston sits at about 7,800 feet elevation.  Kyle Canyon closely resembles the front range of Colorado, where pine trees abound interspersed with thin deciduous trees.  It will easily be 70 degrees F and pleasant in contrast to 105 degrees F in Las Vegas.

We started up the Mary Jane Falls trail, which is fairly short at about a mile and a half while still packing some nice sights.  What I didn’t account for was that the trail rises about 1,100 feet in that 1.5 miles starting from 7,800 feet, with my Dad just up from roughly sea level.  That’s around an 8 degree average incline, for those of you keeping score at home.  He plays soccer, walks on a regular basis, and regularly outpaces me in cities, so I wasn’t too worried.  I still made sure to temper the pace, which serves a dual purpose of being able to see more.  I enjoyed the trek up with my Dad, and there was still enough snow pack on the crests to supply water on the Falls.

It was great, however as a photographer I had a feeling I hadn’t captured anything notable.  This was my third or fourth time up Mary Jane Falls, the mid-afternoon lighting wasn’t special, and the skies were devoid of interesting phenomenon.  Even though it was beautiful, the pictures would be more documentary than anything.

The Shot:

While entirely normal since I regularly take thousands of photos for every decent one, I still find it slightly disappointing.  On the descent, though, just above the parking area at the trail head I saw something that might be interesting.  The moon was rising to the East above a steep ridge with several houses at the terminus.  I don’t remember if I used my polarizer or even noticed I was slightly out of level, but I definitely made a mental note that the composition was made for monochrome.  Indeed, the color version is unremarkable, but I liked the black and white version; it’s a nice reminder of a great time hiking with my Dad.  My friend Megan recently saw it in print, and she excitedly said it looked Ansel Adams-like to her; that was incredibly flattering.  Whether you agree, I hope you can make it out to Mount Charleston to see the area for yourself.