We (my 'boss', myself and Ms. Duoduo Liao) arrived at Moab around 7PM Friday (Oct. 13, 2000) night, camped beside Colorado River, along Utah 121. Forgot to bring food and all (bad planning), we drove to Moab and ate at Denny's. When we were driving back to our tent, interestingly it took us half an hour to find it in dark. We dived into the sleeping bags around 10PM. Woke up (because it was too chilly in our tent, 30F) around 5:30AM, grabbed our friend and drove into Arches National Park to catch sun rise in the Windows area.
After driving in the dark like maniac, running around looking for tripod, camera bag, ..., we hiked into the Windows area. It turns out to be a very easy hike of short distance. Our very first view of the national park then started looking kind of scary, with all those odd shaped rocks, black holes looking at you (maybe it's laughing when wind blows over), we started shivering when wind blew over the openings of our coat. That was around 6:30AM. Apparently, we got there too early. Because, I took the pictures below around 6:45AM. (Later that day, we got to know that sun rise time should be 7:27AM)
South Window North Window
After 7AM, we got warmed up by jumping, ..., and the views started to get even more interesting. I got a shot with the moon in the Turret Arch. This view was shot from the left of the laid-out path that goes into the Turret Arch. You have to really look upwards.
There was not much (actually not any until the sun almost came up) cloud in the sky during that time. So, did not get any interesting shots with pretty sun lit clouds. But a little after 7:10AM, everything on the ground started to get some reddish tint. Still standing in front of Turret Arch, I turned around and got the following pictures.
Turret Arch Looking Rightwards Looking Leftwards
Finally, the Sun shed some light of his on the tip of the rocks and arches. By following other photographers who seemed to know that place well, I started clicking. Not all of my pictures came out great, but did get quite a few ones that I like.
Of course, when you travel with your 'big boss', pictures telling 'been there', 'did that', are un-avoidable. I did not do too well during that time. I blame it on my lack of experience to shoot human portrait in sun rise times. (How often would you get to shoot a picture of a person that early in the day?)
After the morning officially came, we went to our car. This time with day light, we found our food, water and started breakfast. Not wanting to eat, I volunteered breakfast time to driving deeper into the park, towards Devils Garden, while the others ate.
We
arrived at Devils Garden parking lot around 8:30AM, and then collected water
bottles, bagels, camera bag. Off we hiked in. When we walked in, very
interesting views line themselves up around us. In the left picture, I got a
shot at the peeled off tree which are often seen on postcards and travel
magazine covers representing wilderness.
As we walked on, before we even reach the famous Landscape Arch, amazing rock formations showed up almost everywhere we looked at. The almost saturated color of the sand, the red rock, and the whitish desert bushes caught our eyes again and again.
Then
comes the famous Landscape Arch. According to my boss, who is usually in charge
of reading when we travel, it spans over a 310 feet distance. In 1991, a 60 feet
long, 10 feet thick piece of rock fell from the top of it. Due to the fact that
this type of rock falling had been going on for quite a while, the park blocked
all trails leading into the arch. I, however, think that they were also very happy to
find a well-accepted reason to keep those annoying hikers off that abused desert land
whose balance is too delicate to maintain.
After 9:30AM, we marched on. That day was really sunny. As the sun goes higher and higher, it's harder and harder to take interesting pictures. But as we hiked along trails that meandered between rocks, we often got under some big rocks fins or arches. Those places were excluded from direct sun light. The ambient radiosity shading on the red sandstones was often a shocking scene to me too.
How did the arches form? Wall Arch Wall Arch and Boss
To get to the ultimate view of Double O Arch, hikers have to go on a 200 feet (I am guessing) long rock fin, with cliffs on both sides. After this many years' hiking by people like us, the rock looked very smooth and imagery slippery. The ladies screamed (I was not sure it's because of too much fun or something else), I prayed, as the ladies felt their steps to one side of the rock fin, while I was asked to go on the other side to take the must-take pictures. After we got back to our car, we, however, unanimously vote that hike to be the most interesting hike we have ever had.
Boss on the rock fin. Looking down the rock fin at the black arches.
Finally,
we arrived at the Double O Arch. That was a big O on the top, and a smaller O at
the bottom. One thing we noticed there (and later throughout the day), there
were tons of very fine red sand around the arch. The sand was finer than those on
the beaches. I think it is more appropriate to call it dirt. But there were too
much of it, all over the place at a very decent thickness. When trying to relate the
arch erosion with those fine sand, I got awed by the nature, and the shortness
of a human life.
Having got up around 5:30AM, by the time we took a break under the Double O arch around 10:30AM, it seemed to be a pretty long day to us already. We then hiked back and drove back to the Visitor's Center where there was a pay phone, hoping to get a camp site at the Dead Horse Point State Park that night. And we did!
I think the afternoon was relatively boring, because we were pretty tired after the morning fun, and compared to what we saw before sun-set, nothing could surpass the excitement. We drove out to the Dead Horse Point State Park, after we were told on the phone that there were still vacancies in their camp sites. We wanted to chase sun-rise at the Dead Horse Point with a little more ease. Getting up at 5:30AM just seemed too much. Then, we drove back into the park and took pictures along the road side.
Balanced Rock Boss, me, and Balanced Rock. (Thanks, Duoduo)
The Balanced Rock is right beside the road. It does not look very big in the picture. But when you stood in front of it, it's huge. More than 100 feet tall. After reading that the rock on the top tip weighs more than 100 tons, we decided not to walk under it. (Kidding!)
About 1 mile or 2 ahead of the Balanced Rock site, we hiked roughly 0.5 mile to visit the Sand Dune Arch. It is a place occluded from direct sun light, too. The ambient lit sandstones were just breath taking. Again, we had fun with the thick fine sand 'trail' leading into it. Boss seemed happy.
What we did after that seemed a little interesting. Not wanting to walk any more, Duoduo and Boss decided to drive out of the Arches National Park, to get our camping gear left at our previous camp site beside the Colorado River. Because, our next destination was the Delicate Arch at sun set. It turned out that they were right. Had we not got our camp gear in the afternoon, we would then be lucky to get to our new camp site at the Dead Horse Point before mid-night. After we got everything ready for the 40 min hike up to the delicate arch with our carefully saved energy, we set out for the Delicate Arch around 5PM.
For everyone who has been to Utah, I bet you have noticed their car plates. What do you see on them? I mean other than the numbers and alphabets, of course. You see a grand arch on it. And that is the Delicate Arch. I carried my 10 Lb heavy tripod on my back, just to capture a picture of the Delicate Arch myself. The hike turned out a little strenuous with my tripod waving itself left and right. But, it all paid off with the great views I shot at.
Notice the smooth surface of the huge rocks. They are exactly the same as those found under the Delicate Arch.
After 40 min hiking, we got up there. My first impression was, "it's so big!!". Why? Well, it's called delicate arch, right? So, we expected something delicate like a sculpture. Plus, on all the pictures we had seen of it, the arch appeared by itself, with no meaningful comparison as to sizes. But in the above picture of myself (the blue shirt guy) with the arch, the guy standing under the arch seemed so small.
Around 6PM (sun-set was 6:42PM), a lot of people (all with tripod), amateur or professional, have already lined up in two rows. Patiently people waited, no matter chilly wind blew over the sweaty backs. One thing interesting (new to me) was that there were several tourists who didn't care for photography kept wanting to get under the arch. For the first time since I have been in this country, I heard 'Get Out!', 'Get Away', 'A hundred people are mad at you!', 'Make it 150!', 'F***, I don't believe there are d***'s like this', ..., echoing PUBLICLY around the beautiful arch. Some more matured photographers sitting beside me, however, seriously started praying that the cloud would stay out of the way too. You can't shout at the clouds, right?
Anyway we 'photographers' got lucky. Everyone started happily clicking around 6:15PM, all the way till the instant just before the sun took back his last shed of light. To avoid the slightest shaking on my tripod, I used timer for every shot. The cute sound of timers running out got very sync'ed and loud among the two rows of camera for 30 minutes. That moment, all the grown-ups got just so addicted to the Delicate Arch and acted like a little boy saw a pretty shell on the beach for the first time. My honey boss later said, 'you acted like a big boy!'.
That ends the wonderful day at the Arches National Park. We drove back to Moab for food, still at Denny's. The pretty waitress still remembered us. Because we got our water cups messed up the other night, which does not happen often. Unfortunately, the two ladies that I went with did something even more astounding. Each of them ordered not just a big appetite, but two main dishes each. When our table got full of dishes and I looked at the two ladies like they were from some other planet, I am sure the waitress beside us was thinking what I was thinking. I still remember the waitress' name, 'Michelle'. Next time we go to Moab, maybe Michelle would remember what the ladies ordered, if she still works there.