For the most dramatic sunset, you’ll want these clouds and also “a good, unobstructed view to the west,” Null said. “That’s where you get higher clouds; that’s where you get the best colors off the clouds.”
As for what causes those flaming colors at sunset, Null explains that “as the sun gets low on the horizon, it’s going through a deeper part of the atmosphere.” At noon, the sun is right overhead, with “a fairly short distance to the atmosphere,” — but as the sun starts setting, “then it’s a longer distance to the atmosphere, and more and more of the shorter wavelengths of light — the blues, the greens — get filtered out.”
This then “leaves the reds and the oranges,” Null said — often resulting in a sky that looks like it’s on fire. Read more about the science of colorful sunsets in this explainer from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Time your evening hike well
What’s commonly referred to as “golden hour” is the hour before the sun sets — “where the sun angles are low, so you have more golden tones coming through,” Null said. “You don’t have this bright, harsh overhead light,” he said, “so that last hour, the sun is less intense, and it gives this golden kind of glow.”
As for when the sun will actually dip below the horizon, Null said that there are multiple ways to obtain an accurate sunset time — but the easiest is that “you can actually just ask your smartphone or Alexa or whoever: ‘What time is this sunset today?’” That’s because all of those apps and sites get their information from the same place, Null said: The United States Naval Observatory (USNO). The government’s site itself is not the most user-friendly application — you’ll have to manually account for any daylight saving time, for one thing — but it will give you a look-ahead table of sunset times for the coming days and weeks, which might be helpful for planning future evening hikes.
You’ll want to time the start of your evening hike to ensure you’re not racing to your sunset viewpoint. “The sun sets actually fairly rapidly once it gets down over the horizon,” Null said. “So, if I’m going to go shoot a sunset, I want to get to [my viewpoint] about 15 minutes before the sunset time.”
Want to take photos? Choose a focus
For those hoping to not only see the sunset but also photograph it, Null has advice: Your shots will be “much more dramatic if you have something in the foreground to give perspective.”
One of Null’s favorite spots for this kind of photography is the Pigeon Point Lighthouse just south of Pescadero, he said.
