[You may view a map of Arches National Park in PDF format.]

I awoke around 5:20 and it sounded calm outside. :) I got out of bed around 5:50 and pussyfooted around the RV while J slept. There was nice light out around 6:40 when J stirred and said she wanted to stay in the RV this morning. I made instant coffee to go and left in the Jeep by myself around 6:55.

I had Clif Bars for breakfast while driving.

I entered Arches National Park and the scattered clouds were fantastic! I stopped at Park Avenue and photographed there for a while, then went to The Organ. The clouds behind The Organ were nice, but another photographer was already where I wanted to set up, so I waited. By the time he was done, the nice clouds had moved out, so I looked for other opportunities. While photographing The Three Gossips with Common Paintbrush in the foreground, I discovered a composition with Common Paintbrush in the foreground for another formation with much better clouds behind it (left). I used my new Canon TS-E 24mm f3.5 L II lens with the shift motion to look up without tilting the camera up to keep the the rock formation from leaning and with the tilt motion to get the flowers and the formation in sharp focus. I just love that lens!
The clouds had moved in again behind The Organ, so I moved back there and set up. The clouds weren't great, but they were better than the clear sky on Sunday. Another photographer came and shot over my setup as I waited for the clouds to get better. As he was setting up his 4x5 camera, I kept taking exposures to try to capture the best cloud arrangement. Another photographer came and became really impatient because he wanted a shot that would have included my gear. Because the clouds weren't improving much, I moved out of the second photographer's way, he took a few quick shots, then left. I set up again, and captured the best cloud formation of the morning (left). I like the way the clouds outline The Organ, but I would have preferred a few more clouds, especially in the upper left part of the frame.

I exited the park and went to the City Market in Moab to fill up the Jeep at $2.969/gal using our 3¢/gal discount.

I returned to the RV around 10:50 and downloaded the images I took this morning. Then I selected and processed four images from yesterday for the blog. J took a nap before I could make my normal lunch, so I had Clif Bars while working up a blog entry. I did some computer work then downselected images from this morning. Then I processed RAW images in Capture One (C1) from earlier this year to adjust exposure and white balance and then create TIFF files after assigning final file names.
We had dinner around 6:00 of Bertolli Italian Sausage & Rigatoni and Texas Toast.

We left in the Jeep around 6:35.

We went to Arches National Park and stopped at Park Avenue so J could scout an image she'd like to take. Then we went to Balanced Rock to get ready for sunset. I set up in a area I hadn't used before, and I loved the juniper trunk in the foreground. The clouds didn't light up at sunset, but the formations to the south got some nice golden light. My favorite image of the evening, and of the whole visit so far, was of Balanced Rock after sunset (left).

We returned to the RV around 9:10 and I downloaded and downselected the images from tonight then selected three images for the blog.