Dead Horse Point in Early Morning Light

Dead Horse State Park, Utah

(Click the image to explore the high-resolution interactive virtual tour. Not for mobile devices.)

June 12, 2023. 6:48am. — This location in Dead Horse State Park is an iconic location for photographers. It had been on my list of locations to shoot one of my wall murals at. I had set my alarm for 5:30am this particular morning. When my alarm went off I looked out the window of our RV to see a dark bank of clouds on the eastern horizon. Figuring that there would be no good light with the clouds, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Around 6:20 I awoke to a bright beam of sunlight shining in my eyes. I looked out the window excited to discover that the cloud bank had dissipated. I quickly jumped out of bed, got dressed, grabbed my gear and loaded it into the Jeep. Luckily the campground was only a 5 minute drive to this location.

The Legend Of Dead Horse Point

Before the turn of the 19th century, mustang herds ran wild on the mesas near Dead Horse Point. The unique promontory provided a natural corral into which the horses were driven by cowboys. The only escape was through a narrow, 30-yard neck of land controlled by fencing. Mustangs were then roped and broken, with the better ones being kept for personal use or sold to eastern markets. Unwanted culls of “broomtails” were left behind to find their way off the Point. According to one legend, a band of broomtails was left corralled on the Point. The gate was supposedly left open so the horses could return to the open range. For some unknown reason, the mustangs remained on the Point. There they died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

This is a focus-stacked panorama photographed with a Canon R5 and Canon 70–200mm lens at 200mm, f/11, 1/200 second and ISO 400. The panorama was assembled from 210 individual focus-stacked images arranged in 6 rows × 35 columns with approximately 30% overlap in portrait orientation. Producing those 210 finished frames required 280 original exposures, with focus bracketing used for portions of the foreground.

The original image is:

• 5.73 Gigapixels
• 133,906 × 42,798 pixels
• 446″ × 143″ (37.2 ft. × 11.9 ft.) at 300 PPI — uncropped image size
• Image has an approximately 1:3.13 aspect ratio
• Available in 1:3.13 ratio from 10″ x 31.3″ to 30.7″ x 96 ” as Print, Standard Plaque, AlumiPress or PlexiPlaq.
• Native resolution supports wall murals up to approximately 11.9 × 37.2 ft. at 300 PPI, or 23.8 × 74.4 ft. at 150 PPI.
• Large-format wall murals are available. Contact us to discuss custom dimensions and installation requirements.

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