There are moments in Sedona when the landscape seems to change by the second, and sunrise is one of them. As the first light begins to rise above the distant horizon, the massive red rock formations slowly emerge from the shadows, revealing layer after layer of sandstone stretching across the desert.

In this image, the sun appears at exactly that fleeting moment when it clears the canyon ridge, sending rays of golden light directly across the landscape. Above it, soft pink and lavender clouds reflect the colors of the rising sun while the cliffs below begin glowing with the deep reds and oranges that have made Sedona famous around the world.

What makes a scene like this special is the contrast between the enormous scale of the landscape and the very small window of time in which the light looks exactly this way. Only minutes earlier, much of the canyon was still in shadow. Minutes later, the softer colors of dawn would begin giving way to the brighter Arizona daylight.

It is one of those photographs that captures more than the landscape itself. It captures the feeling of being there as the desert wakes up.

Fun Fact: Sedona’s famous red and orange colors come largely from iron oxide within the sandstone—the same basic process that creates rust. When low-angle sunrise or sunset light strikes those formations, the warm light intensifies their natural color and can make the rocks appear to glow.