After spending a week at a photography workshop in Aspen Colorado, I rented a car and drove 4 hours down the mountain and into the Utah desert to the Arches National Park. I based myself for a night in the small town of Moab, ideally located just near the entrance to the park. I chose the Moab Rustic Inn, which was super comfortable, super clean and very friendly. I’d happily stay here again. It's a great quality roadside motel with a nice little swimming pool.
To get into the Park you had to buy a timed entry. Like Maroon Bell in Aspen, they usually sell out a few months ahead of time, and are intended to spread the load of visitors across the day. Before 8am and after 4pm you don’t need a timed entry, and can just pay the entry fee.
My slot was 3pm, but I was a little late and got there at 4pm. I was nervous that it would be packed with a line of cars stretching out to the highway. 'Luckily' it was around 38 degrees celsius that day so wasn’t overly busy. There were quite a lot of cars in the park, but I had no trouble parking in any of the little car parks whenever I needed.
Oh my lord! What an amazing landscape. The drive into the park winds up a cliff face, and then at the top opens up to the most amazing tall rock faces, eroded down over aeons. The most famous spots in the park are clearly marked with good car parks, and there are heaps of little pullouts to stop at in between.
The ‘big one’ is the Delicate Arch, which you can access via a 4.8km round trip hike, or you can drive to lower vantage points with a hike of only a few minutes.
There were lots of warning signs about excess heat and preventative measures you should take. I was pretty prepared for the hike, with big wide brimmed hat, cool hiking gear and 1 litre of water. I took it easy on the way up, but it was SO hot, and the landscape is relatively unshaded. If you’re walking up for sunset, as the sun is at a low angle, you can get some shade behind boulders and trees. I wish that I had taken some more water, I did have some fruit with lots of moisture (apples) that I ate, but I had run out as I started the hike back down.
My style icon for the trip - Australia's favourite bushman, Russell Coight!
At the top there was quite a crowd that steadily built. It was quite hard to get a shot of the arch without including all the other visitors, either on the rocks, or having their picture taken under the arch. Perseverance and lateral thinking meant that I did get some shots I’m very happy with. I also asked the informal line waiting to have their pic taken under the arch if I could quickly take a few images with no one, and they were very happy to wait for a moment for me.
The next morning I had arranged to a sunrise tour with Zach Cooley who is a local photographer who takes stunning images of the park usually with the moon behind the rocks. I loved Zach’s unique style and thought it would be great to spend a few hours with him to chat about his approach.
Zach picked me up and we drove into the park, and visited all of his favourite sunrise spots in the park over the course of 4 or so hours. This was great, as it meant that I didn’t waste my limited time in the park and came away with some images that I’m really happy with. Zach was a great guide, great conversationalist and I really recommend him to anyone visiting the area.
