It was late in the afternoon when I arrived in Moab Utah, and even later when I drove in to Arches National Park. I just kept saying “Oh, Wow!” and and driving around taking pictures.
It was late twilight when I set up my camera in the parking lot at the south end of Park Avenue. I used a 24mm wide angle lens, set the ISO to 400, the lens aperture to f/8 and the shutter speed to 30 seconds.
I got clouds streaking overhead and stars in sky. It was 8:49 pm, 47 minutes after sunset. You can see the distinctive outline of Queen Nefertiti in the lower right corner of the photo. This is my favorite photo for this date.
You know what I am going to say next. Arches is a great place to take pictures.
I was having a great time. It was the beginning of a little less than 48 hours (and that includes two nights sleep) to do 6 spectacular parks. It was barely enough time to sample each of them, must less explore any one of them.
It all came about because I had four days to drive from Denver to the San Francisco Bay Area. I got to thinking about my route and all of the wonderful southern Utah parks I have read so much about. So instead of taking I-80 across the country, I decided on a route across southern Utah. That would give me a little less than 2 days to get a glimpse of the parks. Two days was better than nothing.
Earlier in the day, driving along the Colorado River, I spotted some desert flowers and stopped to take pictures. This is my second place favorite image for this date.
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Series: Favorite Photos by Date – all about this series