My return to Arches with a group of friends.
Please check out my first visit here:
http://packslinger.blogspot.com/2015/02/arches-and-canyonlands-national-parks.html
Since my last visit, I moved up to a full frame camera. It's like trading in a Camaro for a Ferrari! The Ogden camera club, in which I am a member, decided to do a group trip and the destination was Moab! The plan was to visit the many attractions that this awesome chunk of Utah has to offer. This trip was especially awesome, because my beautiful wife, whom rarely does, joined me on this adventure. We made the long drive early Thursday morning and we arrived shortly after five and met a few of the members for dinner. While eating, we formulated our plan to check out Mesa arch, a iconic scenic vista for sunrise photography. That evening I christened the three other lunatics that planed on rising at 3:30 am in order to meet and drive into Canyon lands national park, the Mesa warriors! Now, were we really warriors? No, not really, however we did have to fight for elbow room and had to race up a snow covered hillside to reach the arch, for a decent spot. This was my second experience and this one ended up being the most difficult one of the two. There was a very inconsiderate fellow leading a group of ten people, that had never been there before and from some of the questions they were asking, barely understood how to turn on their camera. They all lined up ten feet from the arch! Even with all of these challenges, we managed to pull of a few good shots.
Tried a couple different angles
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Mesa warriors.
After breakfast my wife and I drove through Arches. Our first stop, the three gossips.
Balanced rock.
Another rock near Balanced.
The snow covered La Sals in the distance.
This looks like a gnome.
Our next stop was Double arch.
We stayed in the park for a while and on our way out for lunch, I shot the gossips again, along with the court house towers.
After a great lunch, we made the hike up to Delicate arch for the sunset.
The next morning I met several members to check out Landscape arch. Below is a shot of the road you climb, and in the center is three rocks that look a lot like old Egyptian eagle statues.
Landscape.
Some of the scenery you'll pass on the way in and out.
Later that evening, we visited Dead horse point, what a beautiful place to watch the sun go down!
The last sliver of sun! I ended up with a blown out sky, but wow!
We ate like king every night, Moab has so much to offer! The next morning, we needed to drive home. I knew of a few ghost towns on the way home so we headed that way. On the way out we saw Mater, you know just like "tamater, without the ta".
The Rock shop on the way into town had this neat old truck and some large petrified logs.
We headed up highway 128 in search of forgotten ghosts on the way home.
Update. Saturday night before I left, a friend and his family went an did some night photography and when I made the post I neglected to add these. We took these shots while shaking the flash lights back and forth along the arch. As the light moves across the arch it paints onto the camera sensor. The technique is referred to as light painting. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out! The below pictures were taken at double arch.
