Let me start by saying this wasn't the greatest of days to take photographs. Let me also say, this image is not from Murray Hill. I had heard of Preparation Canyon State Park and meant to go and check it out. Well I missed a couple decent days having to wait at home for a Fed Ex delivery. I then sat out a couple days as I didn't feel the sky was the greatest. I thought these clouds would be more scattered by afternoon and perhaps be 50/50 clouds/sky. What happens is it stays 95/5 clouds/sky the majority of the day. It is also the coldest day of the fall(40 when I left and dropping all day) as well as the windiest, with gusts over 40mph.
I thought this lookout was more to the south and actually found it on accident. When I found it I thought there were going to be more to the south and that they'd maybe be scattered all over in the park. I never thought this was the one I was looking for. By the way, this park is located between Pisgah and Moorhead IA, just north of Omaha 40-50 miles.
This kind of cloud cover is the worst to shoot a landscape in. Having a few openings allows bright areas in the sky, but very little foreground lighting. The resulting dynamic range is just too big to do that well with(one could use a split filter and have some luck). What you end up with is a sky blowing out AND a foreground almost clipping to black. Having more breaks would help as it would allow areas of the foreground to be lit up.
Getting cold and frustrated I cruise around the park some. Not long into this I realize just how dumb it was that I didn't fill up the gas tank on the way there. I wanted to mess around there and look for good locations, but not on a low tank while having no real idea how close any gas stations even were. I head back to Pisgah and only saw one thing resembling a gas station but it just didn't look that "in service". Perhaps it was, but I said screw it, and drove west to Little Sioux. No gas there! I knew Mondamin did and had hoped it wouldn't take driving that much back towards home. Well after Little Sioux that was the only real option, so I drove there and filled up. I drove halfway back home to fill up, lol.
When I first drove to the park I came up 183 instead of I-29, so I never drove between Pisgah and Little Sioux. I had seen a better looking overlook online called Murray Hill, but that site said it was south of Pisgah. So that is why I took 183 on the way there, to see if I could spot that before I got to the park. Well it turns out it was west of Pisgah and it was a good thing I did all this work for gas. After getting gas I take the I-29 to Little Sioux and Little Sioux to Pisgah route. I wasn't even looking for this Murray hill at the time. On the way back into the hills I see this sign out of the corner of my eye that I swore said Murray on it. I turn around and drive back to it. Sure enough! It reads, "Murray Hill overlook 1/2 mile ahead." The online site I saw it on showed a pictorial display of the journey to the top. I had the impression it would take some work and wasn't that thrilled about some long hike. Well it was a piece of cake walk from the parking area.
Now ontop of this Murray Hill overlook. What a view there is on this thing! To get here you just go ne out of Little Sioux towards Pisgah. The pull off area is on the right, shortly after entering the hills.
Zoomed in shot of the highway coming up the hills, with the fields in the top right at a lower elevation than the road.
View to the east, with some decent but short-lived breaks in the clouds. If there was a spot to experience high winds in the area, this is it. 180 degrees of the western horizon is flat.
Back to Murray Hill again. After searching the rest of the park out I didn't see anything that would beat this view...so I came back. It was now after 5pm and the sun getting lower was helping with the cloud cover. I stopped the lens down for this, but the strong winds were killing my foreground sharpness. It's ok I guess, but the flowers are pretty soft. I waited and waited on the wind to let up for a second, but it really wasn't happening.
Another perspective looking south along the hills.
This is the view to the west. What a location to shoot storms/lightning from!
I met this photographer up at the park earlier in the day. He drove from Des Moines to shoot this area. My sister and her family showed up about this time. I think everyone could agree it was damn cold out in that wind. I left home at 11 a.m. and was still here at 7. My hands were very red when I made my last trip down the hill. Oh yeah, for reference, it's only about a 1/4 mile walk from the parking area to the top.
This is a 210mm zoom shot to the north. I'll have to check on the name of that river but I think it is the Soldier.
Since this is so close to home(probably 25 minutes) I'm sure I'll be heading up there often.