Monday, September 24, 2012

Trip to Utah, Part 1 "Arches National Park"

Park Ave, Arches National Park, UT
Arches National Park, UT
This area of rock has been carved out by water over time.  It is pretty crazy what flowing water over millions if years can do.  Wait til you see more pictures from Zion National Park.

Park Ave, Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a week to explore the southern part of Utah and check out a few of national parks there.  The first park was Arches National Park.  Spent two days there doing a lot of hiking, applying sun screen, and taking a ton of pictures.  Thank goodness I took the rental car...I needed that air conditioning badly, it was HOT.  I did some camping for the second time in my life and I will say it is much cheaper than hotel every night.  I highly recommend it.  I basically was living out of the car and pitching the tent half of the trip.  The first night was right outside of the park and on the Colorado river.  Stars at night are brilliant in this area!

Fiery Furnace at Sunset, Arches National Park, UT
They say the rocks at fiery furnace at sunset literally look like they are on fire.  Its true, the sun light at this time really bring out the reds, oranges and yellows of these rocks.  There was a small group of other photographers and their tripods all set up here when i arrived.  I took it as a sign to stick around as the sun made its way down.

Arches National Park, UT

Navajo Arch, Arches National Park, UT
This particular arch was very cool it opened up into a cave like area.  Didn't seem to be as popular as other sites so it was not polluted with so many people.

Double O Arch, Arches National Park, UT
The double o arch was very hug and there is even another arch underneath it. The scale of this thing was so big I couldn't get it all in my wide angle lens.  The hike to get to this thing was pretty strenuous and awesome at the same time.  It would bring you high points that gave you great views.  At one point the trail was along a "fin."  Fins are those long rock structures that you can sort of see in the background of the above photo.  At times it really gave you a top of the work feeling.

Arches National Park, UT

Broken Arch, Arches National Park, UT

Arches National Park, UT

1 comment:

Jackson Hole Skier said...

Beautiful photographs. I have been to this area and seen many photos of the area but yours may be the best I have seen. The light is so strong it is hard to imagine getting the full range of shadows and highlights properly exposed but you have done it somehow.