Roadtrip Images

Delicate Arch is one of Arches National Park’s iconic landmarks. Our recent hike there was an interesting visit.

Arches National Park is near Moab, Utah and this year they’re doing major road construction throughout the park. They close access from 7:00pm to 7:00am each weekday while they work on the roads at night. It makes sense from a logistics perspective as most visitors use the park during the daylight hours anyway. For photographers it’s the pits since you can’t get in there for sunrise or sunset shoots. They do leave it open Friday and Saturday nights so that’s when we made the hike up to Delicate Arch for sunset.

Delicate Arch is the most famous arch in the park. It’s a three mile round trip hike with a 480 foot elevation change. It’s uphill on the way there over some very steep slickrock sections. You need good hiking boots. Sunset is a very popular time and despite the relatively strenuous uphill hike to get there, a lot of people were there when we arrived. I mean a lot. It was interesting to see the variety of hiking preparations people had made (or not). There was the entire spectrum of footwear from good hiking boots to flip flops. Going up the steep slickrock in flip flops must have been fun. Despite the heavy backpack of camera gear I carry, we made the hike up without much trouble.

Once there it was quite a sight. People where everywhere. Every vantage point. In the arch, below the arch, all around the arch. There were photographers (I use the term loosely) laying on the ground under the arch shooting upwards. There were some using their female partners as photo models under the arch with long scarves blowing in the wind. There was even one there dressed in what seemed like a wedding dress standing on the rocks to the left of the arch doing all sorts of poses. This went on for a long, long time. Meanwhile, there were a lot of photographers on the other side of the scene patiently waiting for the arch to clear so they could get a shot of the arch without people in it. It became interesting conversation while we watched all the antics going on underneath the arch.

This was all well before sunset so not too much of an issue but once we started approaching the golden hour, people’s patience wore thin. One gentleman even walked over to those under the arch and tried to convince them to clear out. He kept pointing back towards all of us showing all the photographers waiting to get a shot. Some people did move but others just moved back in to fill the void. It was like herding cats. He came back rather dejected as he had been there for hours watching all this. Then a strange thing happened. All the waiting photographers started to yell. Loudly and in unison so we joined in. Booing and yelling at all the people in the arch to clear out. It actually worked! OK, there were a lot of people yelling so it was hard to ignore. The wedding dress girl tried to sneak back in for more photo’s but she got rejected rather loudly. She slinked off back to the sidelines. I have never experienced this before at a popular viewpoint.

The image above was just before sunset which created the best glow on the sandstone. There where still a lot of people I needed to remove in Photoshop as they had only cleared out of the immediate arch area. But that was better than what was before. Despite all the events of the evening it was still a pretty awesome sight. The arch is very photogenic and in the right light the scene comes alive with color. After the sun disappeared behind the cliffs we packed up and headed back down the trail. Towards the bottom it was getting dark so we turned our headlamps on. It was surprising how many people were still making the hike up even though it was getting dark. No headlamps either. One stopped and asked us how much further to the top. I told them quite a ways. “It will be totally dark by the time you get there”, I said. They continued up anyway. I hope they made it. The trail would be hard to find in the dark.

As I’ve heard it said, the National Parks are getting loved to death. Visitation is way up from just a decade ago and the Parks are struggling to find ways to handle the volume. Even so, it’s still a great experience. The natural settings that the Parks were created for in the first place are a joy to be in. They refresh the mind and still cause awe and wonder. A little tolerance and patience may be required at these iconic locations but there’s still a lot of Park to experience beyond these few spots.

Nikon D810 with Nikkor 24-70mm @35mm. f/11 at 1/20 sec. ISO 40