In Salt Lake City, the mountains change the math: the sun can drop behind a ridge well before the 'official' sunset below. Scout your horizon line and treat the calculated times as your latest-possible window. The times below are computed live for Salt Lake City's exact coordinates and update automatically for any date you pick.
The month-by-month table below is in this city's own local time. The live times above follow your device's timezone. Mountains, ridgelines and buildings can shorten the usable window — scout your horizon.
Local golden hour spot: Ensign Peak above the capitol. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
Golden hour in Salt Lake City is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:59 PM in December to 9:03 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Salt Lake City's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Salt Lake City starts about 41 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 8:19 PM – 9:00 PM; in December it is 4:17 PM – 5:00 PM.
Sunset in Salt Lake City is earliest at 4:59 PM on December 5 and latest at 9:03 PM on June 25, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 41 minutes in midsummer and 43 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 43 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 36 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:49 AM | 5:24 PM | 4:42 PM – 5:24 PM | 42 min | 9h 35m |
| February | 7:21 AM | 6:02 PM | 5:24 PM – 6:02 PM | 38 min | 10h 41m |
| March | 7:38 AM | 7:34 PM | 6:58 PM – 7:34 PM | 36 min | 11h 56m |
| April | 6:48 AM | 8:07 PM | 7:30 PM – 8:07 PM | 37 min | 13h 19m |
| May | 6:10 AM | 8:38 PM | 7:58 PM – 8:38 PM | 40 min | 14h 28m |
| June | 5:55 AM | 9:00 PM | 8:19 PM – 9:00 PM | 41 min | 15h 05m |
| July | 6:09 AM | 8:57 PM | 8:17 PM – 8:57 PM | 40 min | 14h 48m |
| August | 6:37 AM | 8:25 PM | 7:47 PM – 8:25 PM | 38 min | 13h 47m |
| September | 7:08 AM | 7:36 PM | 7:00 PM – 7:36 PM | 36 min | 12h 28m |
| October | 7:38 AM | 6:46 PM | 6:09 PM – 6:46 PM | 37 min | 11h 08m |
| November | 7:14 AM | 5:09 PM | 4:28 PM – 5:09 PM | 41 min | 9h 55m |
| December | 7:44 AM | 5:00 PM | 4:17 PM – 5:00 PM | 43 min | 9h 16m |
Golden hour is the stretch just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the low sun turns hard daylight into soft, warm, directional light — the most flattering natural light for portraits, real estate, product and landscape photography. Blue hour follows sunset (and precedes sunrise): a short window of deep, even blue that's ideal for twilight real estate shots and skylines. Both windows change with latitude and season, which is why this page computes them live instead of guessing.
Kanyon Studio is a San Diego photography and video studio — golden hour is our home field. Brand shoots, products, real estate and portraits, planned around exactly this light.
