Sunrise at Arches National Park. The image was taken on the southeast side of the rock with the sun reflecting off of the sandstone on the other side of the arch. At sunrise few visitors, if any, will be encountered on the primitive trail behind the Windows. Nikon D3X, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 @ 1/125 sec f/6.7This is what might be best described as the ‘backside’ of the windows at Arches National Park. Most visitors see the opposite side, where the well-maintained path makes provides easy accessibility to the arches. For those who want a different view, to the left is a primitive trail around the back of the windows to the parking lot. The view 180 degrees opposite offers a spectacular landscape, the image of which would be best captured in the evening golden hour. Nikon D850, Nikkor 17-35mm f/2/8 1/250 sec @ f/10.South Window of the Windows, Arches National Park. Nikon D3X, Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8, 1/180 sec @ f/6.7The line through the canyon is Shafer’s Trail. In the early 1900’s John Sog Safer searched for a way to move cattle from the high mesas to the Colorado River. He found or track, often only one cow wide, through the canyons. Today the Safer trail in some places is a little wider than one cow but certainly in more than a few places only one 4X4 wide with drops of hundreds to perhaps thousands of feet at the edge of the track. Nikon D850, Nikkor 17-35 mm f/2/8 @ 1/100 sec f/7.1It is called Park Avenue, one of the first overlooks at Arches National Park. The photograph does not do justice to the scale and magnitude of the rock formations. You have to see it to appreciate it. Nikon D850, Nikkor 17-35mm f/2/8, 1/250 sec @ f/8
