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

I got out of bed before J and went outside around 6:35 to photograph some of the wildflowers at our campsite because the wind was dead calm. I found a nice Stemless Wollybase bloom and photographed it for a while then looked for another one. I was pleased to find a nice bloom with an Apolysis fly on it, and the fly must have been asleep because it didn't mind me photographing it from various angles (below left). :) Then I turned my attention to the Sand Verbena (below right). I love the effect of the shallow depth of field that turns the small ball of blowers into a cluster with a ring around it.


I went back inside the RV around 7:45 and prepared some instant coffee to go. Then I had a bowl of Post Raisin Bran cereal while J had a bowl of Quaker Natural Granola - Oats & Honey & Raisins. We left in the Jeep around 8:05.

We entered Arches National Park and stopped shortly after reaching the top of the hill to photograph some Prince's Plume. While there, I also photographed Scorpionweed, Heronsbill (below left), and Harriman's Yucca. Then we went to Park Avenue so J could photograph the rock formation known as Queen Nefertiti, and I photographed a not-so-cooperative Central Western Whiptail (below right).


We returned to the RV around 10:45. I downloaded the images I took this morning then finished downselecting the images I took yesterday. I started to downselect the images I took this morning then had lunch around noon. I finished downselecting the images I took this morning then started to work up a blog entry. I processed two images for the blog then finished the blog entry.

We had dinner around 6:10 of leftover chicken breasts with creamy mushroom gravy and pasta Strogonoff and fresh broccoli.

We left in the Jeep around 6:50.

We returned to Arches National Park and stopped at Park Avenue because there were some nice clouds moving over it and to the east. Unfortunately, by the time I was set up, the clouds had moved a bit too far to the east and I discovered that the shadows were too high on the rock formations. J was busy photographing some wildflowers in the nice diffuse light provided by the western wall of Park Avenue, so I waited. We left and went by Balanced Rock. The clouds didn't look too promising there, plus a large tour bus was parked in the lot with about 20 photographers lined up in the lot with another 20 or so photographers lined up on the rocky hill to the north so we kept going — neither of us likes shooting in a crowd. We stopped at the trailhead for Sand Dune Arch and Broken Arch around 8:17 and sunset was supposed to be at 8:28. The fins just to the south were starting to light up in the late light and some clouds to the southeast were interesting. I huffed it out to Broken Arch and got there just in time for the clouds to light up. Unfortunately, the widest lens I had with me (24mm) wasn't quite wide enough to do justice to the scene. The last time I photographed it (at sunrise), I still had my 16-35, and I wished I had a similar focal length range to use. Because I was going to be shooting at 24mm, I used the 24 Tilt/Shift Mk II, even though I wasn't going to use any of the tilt or shift movements, just so I could get a sharper image than with my 24-105. The image (left) was created from two RAW files, one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the foreground, and then combined by hand in Photoshop. While I was photographing there, I had the pleasant company of a bat that kept flying around the arch and the unpleasant company of a mosquito that thought I tasted good. I hiked back to the Jeep after the sun had set, and we headed for the entrance.

We returned to the RV around 9:35. I downloaded the images I took tonight and then downselected them. One of the cords in the shade over our sofa broke when I tried to close it, and it was extremely hard to close after that. So, we'll have to replace the cord soon so we can open up the shade again.