Annular Eclipse

watching & photographing the eclipse

The annular solar eclipse of 2023 was my first experience watching and photographing this amazing event. And the so-called ‘ring of ‘fire eclipse, where the moon is a little too far away to totally block the sun, is a great practice run for the total eclipse of April 2024.

heading to bryce canyon for the annular eclipse

I traveled to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah so I could be in the center path of the annular eclipse. But finding a location that would put the canyon’s beautiful rock formations in the same frame with the eclipse high overhead proved difficult. At Bryce Canyon, you stand on a high plateau looking down on the magical red rock hoodoos. At 10:30am, when the annular eclipse is at its peak, it’s high in the sky. So that required hiking down several trails below the canyon rim, hoping to find a location low enough to get the eclipse to appear with the landscape. But as you go lower, trees get in the way.

red canyon

Red Canyon, located in a national forest near Bryce Canyon, offered an easily accessible location. Here, the highway dips into the canyon and the rock formations rise overhead. A short scramble up the hillside provided a great location to watched the eclipsing sun rise above the rocks and parallel the landscape through the 3-hour-long eclipse.

Watching and photographing the sun

a few of my favorite images of the annular eclipse

the location

The rock formations where I watched and photographed the 2023 eclipse are located in Red Canyon Utah, on Hwy 12, about 15 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Red Canyon, Utah 84759

Utah