City of Rocks Milky Way

From the photographer: “While in Juarez for work, I decided to rent a car and explore New Mexico for a long weekend. On a recommendation from a friend, I went out to City of Rocks State Park to camp.

The park is approximately 2 square miles, with various shapes and clusters of boulders located on top of a small plateau at 5200ft. It is located between Silver City and Deming, NM. The layer of rock was formed in a volcanic eruption approximately 35 million years ago, with erosion leaving behind the boulders, some approximately 20 feet tall.

Luckily, there weren’t many people at the campsite this past weekend. I waited for darkness to fall, and walked over to an empty Campsite 1 to capture this single image amongst the rocks. There were several warnings of rattlesnakes and their affinity for the warm rocks at the beginning of night. I proceeded cautiously through the rocks to find this composition.”

Technical details:
Single-exposure
Sony A7RII, Viltrox 16mm F1.8, F2.8, ISO6400, Exp.: 15s