Milky Way over Rio Chama

The Rio Chama is about 120 miles long, running north to south from its origin in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, down through the Chama Valley, then into the Rio Grande near Espanola, NM. It was designated a State Scenic and Pastoral River in 1978, and a portion of its path through the Santa Fe National Forest is now the Chama River Canyon Wilderness.

The Milky Way is a large spiral galaxy containing billions of stars, one of which is known to us as "the Sun." The Milky Way has a diameter of ~100,000 light years.

I felt very fortunate to capture both of these incredibly beautiful things in one photo. Full disclosure: I used a wide-angle lens and I was in the middle of both of them, so it wasn't really that unexpected.

This image was taken south of the Village of Chama, at about 7,800' elevation on a clear night, so the stars were really bright. It was late August, and the river was running low enough that I was able to set up my camera and tripod in the river to catch the stars reflecting off the running water.