Ben Lomond Trip #1

I've had this picture in my head of the milky way arching over Ogden and the Wasatch mountains viewed from Ben Lomond Mountain for several months now. The first weekend in May I was able to convince another photographer to hike in some snow and spend the night on the mountain photographing the stars and the city. 

Blue Hour above Ogden

Due to the amount of snow and the other photographer being a tad out of shape we only made it about 3 miles out of 8. Nevertheless, we were able to get some great photos of sunset and blue hour but the skies were hazy and cloudy and showed no signs of clearing.

John Hart - Night Adventurer

Casey Grimley - Night Adventurer

Since the milky way didn't rise above the horizon until around 1:00 am we set up camp, started a fire and took a nap.

It's worth noting that my plan was to pretty much spend the entire night photographing so I didn't take a sleeping bag, just a pad to lay on. We were also camping on a couple feet of snow so it was a bit chilly.

When we awoke around 1:00 am the fire had nearly died in just an hour and I hurriedly re-started the fire. In looking at the skies, there were still lots of high, thin clouds. Back to sleep for an hour or so, but I couldn't sleep and just laid there until around 2:30, keeping the fire well fed.

My town, O-town

Ben Lomond through the trees

I got restless and started wandering around taking shots in hopes the clouds would miraculously clear. After an hour or so, I was ready to call it a night and get some much needed sleep. I had the cliche photographer thought, "just one more shot" when all of the sudden a strong breeze started clearing out the clouds. "Could this be the break we've been hoping for?" I thought.






Then suddenly it happened, the clouds cleared just enough to see the milky way over Mt. Ogden. It stayed cleared for nearly an hour and we were able to get lots of shots with different compositions.

Milky Way as the skies cleared

After getting all the shots I wanted I went back to sleep for another hour or so then got up for dawn and sunrise. 

Getting a nap in under the stars

Lowepro Sport 200 holding all my gear needed for an overnighter