Arches National Park

During a recent trip to Moab, I visited Arches National Park several times. Here are some photographs from that trip.

We arrived at the parking lot in the early evening, trying to time it so that we'd arrive at Delicate Arch as the sun began to set. My son and I set out right away, my wife followed at a slower pace. We quickly got out of breath with the climb in the heat and high altitude. The first part of the walk is a good trail; the last part is very steep with no trail. To find our way, we looked ahead and headed toward the people who were leaving the arch. The climb was over slick rock. Eventually we reached a narrow ledge, walked on it, and came around a large outcropping of rock to suddenly see the arch.

Delicate Arch

There were several dozen people there with the same idea to watch the sunset light. My son and I found a spot to sit and catch our breaths. I grabbed the camera, took some shots handheld, then set up the tripod and cable release. I took quite a few shots as the sun went down and people took turns posing for photos next to the arch. I managed a handful of shots with no people, but I think I like this shot best for the fading sunlight, mountain backdrop, and single person to show the scale. We hiked back down after the last of the sunlight left the arch, making it most of the way back to the parking lot in twilight, with only the last few minutes in darkness. For another view of the arch, here's a shot from earlier in the trip taken from the valley.

Delicate Arch from the Valley

If you look closely, you can see people near the arch.

The arches are the big show in that park, but there are other sights too.

Arches National Park

Another spot that I liked was the area around Skyline Arch.

Skyline Arch

Note the people in the shot to get some sense of scale. We also stopped by Broken Arch and Sandstone Arch. My son did the honors of standing by to show scale.

Broken Arch

Sandstone Arch

Sandstone Arch is in a narrow break in the rocks where the strong wind was a welcome relief on a hot summer day.

But my favorite part of the park is in the area where the Windows and Parade of Elephants is. My son saw Double Arch and immediately wanted to climb, so we did...

Double Arch

Again, note the people in the picture. This formation is enormous. I couldn't resist playing in Lightroom with a shot that I took as the clouds cleared enough to get some direct sunlight.

Double Arch

Here's a shot of the shadow cast by the rock, with a bright spot where the sun shone through an arch.

At the Parade of Elephants

Here's a shot that I like which shows the sunlight bathing the Windows (only one Window is visible).

Windows

Here are a few other shots from this area.

Turret Arch

Windows

Window

Landscape Arch

And no trip to Arches is complete without a stop at Landscape Arch. We almost missed this because the road was closed for repaving the parking lot until the day before we left. We got to see it only because the work finished early. Not a great shot, but I didn't have the option of coming back for morning sunlight.

So overall, I really liked this park; it was full of challenging photography opportunities, and I hope to return sometime, hopefully during any season other than summer. It was HOT.