John Fielder remarked that the best time for photos is often when normal people would like to be eating dinner, so if you want the shot, pack a sandwich along with your camera. Catching this sunset at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia proved this to be pretty good advice!
I arrived in the park later than planned, which left me just enough time to make camp before driving to the trail head. Dinner was in the car - a turkey sandwich from the camp store. With the light waning, I double-timed it up the trail to the summit of Stony Man, and was rewarded with a great view, beautiful colors, and a nice collection of rocks and small pools in the foreground. After a few hours of shooting the changing scene, I donned a headlight and hiked back down in the dark, relieved that the glowing eyes in the forest were just deer and rabbits, not bears!
