Painted Desert Sunset

Catching the sunset in the Painted Desert at Petrified Forest National Park, AZ is a bit tricky because the park hours are not necessarily conducive to being in the park at sunset (exception for backpackers with a permit). I happened to be passing there a couple hours before sunset, so decided to take a short detour to see what I might capture. I pressed a bit past the official "be in you car headed to the nearest exit" time by about 15 minutes to get this shot from Pintado Point. As I was putting my gear back in the Jeep, a ranger stopped to ensure that I was, indeed, headed out of the park. There is an unusually large amount of water flowing through the wash due to recent rains. Imaged in December 2014.