Probably everyone has seen a picture from Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park at some point. I think Windows even offers one as a desktop background. We wanted to see if we could capture a similar image. That meant getting up early (5 a.m.), driving to the park and hiking a quarter mile trail in the dark. I was surprised to find the parking area at the Mesa Arch trailhead nearly full. We found a fellow photographer lost along the trail. He had a small flashlight and could not see far enough ahead to find the next cairn marking the trail. When we reached the arch, there were probably 20 to 30 people already there, cameras on tripods, waiting for sunrise.
The way everyone squeezed into the limited area reminded me of hogs at the feeding trough.
As the sun started peaking above the horizon, the shutters started snapping. That was about the time we heard a lot of commotion behind us and saw two busloads of tourists descending on the arch. We held our ground and got our pictures. As the sun rose, the lighting changed dramatically.
We finally relinquished our spot and moved around the area. The clouds were one of our favorite subjects as well as the streaming sun rays.
In the view below you can see the area overlooking the arch was pretty small and everyone wanted to get in there for a picture. Only a third of the people are visible in the picture below - they were crawling over every rock and hill for a hundred yards on either side of the arch.
Before the sun got much higher in the sky, we headed to the Grand View Point Overlook.
Near Grand View Point, there was a turn out labeled Orange Cliffs Overlook. In the early morning light, the cliffs certainly did look orange. If we had stayed a while longer, we would have seen a dramatic change as the sun continued to climb in the sky, but we opted to move to yet another overlook.
We stopped at the Buck Canyon Overlook and finally at the Shafer Trail Overlook. The sun was still providing the nice morning glow we like. I think we prefer sunrise over sunset. It seems there is more time for pictures, it is usually cooler, and a lot of the time there are better clouds or even morning mist. The only downside is, of course, getting up so early.
The beautiful plant below was named Winterfat. The white blossoms had just exploded for the season and appeared so soft and fluffy.
Sadly, this was our last visit to Island in the Sky for a while, but we will be seeing the southern end of the park soon. We headed back to Moab for an early lunch and naps - you know we have to pace ourselves.
Winterfat is long-lived (up to 130 years) and is high in protein for winter foraging critters (thus the name).
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