Canyonlands and Arches National Park

My last stop of my trip before heading off to Colorado for Venassa & Raphael’s wedding was in Moab, Utah. Moab is a really cool town that sits just outside of both Canyonlands and Arches, and is a Mecca for rock climbers, mountain bikers and other nature and extreme sport lovers. I was initially going to camp in Arches for the 2 days I was there, but after having such a good time in Moab (the brewery in town is fantastic) I decided to simply stay in a hotel.

Over the two days I spent most of my time in Arches. However on one of the mornings I got up early and raced my way up into Canyonlands so that I could get a picture of the Mesa Arch at sunrise. It is probably one of the most photographed arches. While I was racing time to get up to the Arch I noticed another car behind me driving equally fast. When I pulled over at the Mesa Arch trailhead they pulled in right beside me. We all got out of our vehicles, full camera gear in hand, and ran off to the Arch to setup before sunrise. We got there just in time. The group of three photographers were from Portugal. One of the photographers (Fernando) used to be a professional photographer, however now he just shoots for himself. It was a real pleasure to meet this group, and get some pointers from Fernando. He had such a great eye.

After shooting the sunrise I headed up to Arches National Park and went for a hike along the Devils Garden trail. It was a really fun hike that took me over fins and canyons, and to a lot of different arches. It was a bit ridiculous how many arches are in the park. Later that day I did another hike up to the Delicate Arch where I ran into the group from Portugal again. Delicate Arch is the arch that is featured on the Utah licence plate, and probably one of the most famous arches. I hung around taking photos and watched the sun set. It was a bit of a task hiking back down from the arch in the pitch dark. Luckily I had my headlight and was accompanied by a couple other photographers with lights.

I really enjoyed my time in Moab and the parks nearby, and am really glad I decided to change my trip to accommodate them. Would love to go back sometime in the future.

Here are some photos from Canyonlands and Arches.

Written by stefan klopp

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