After breakfast and such, we get back on the road. Dan dragged his usual load out across the courtyard and through the lobby out to the car, and Karen carried the odds and ends. You can see from the shadows that we are getting an early-ish start.
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This morning, the road is high, and the clouds are low.
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Welcome to Utah. Note the clouds on the ground up ahead.
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We pull over to a scenic View Area. Up in the clouds.
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We take each other's pictures through the fog, up high on I-70 in Utah.
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We hiked up the ramp to the pinnacle of the view area. Apparently, we are surrounded by majestic mountains. According to signs. I followed Karen back down.
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We left the Interstate to head down to Moab following the Colorado River downstream. The Book Cliffs are along the way. Note cattle grate that we call a "gronk." Beware of bovines is what that sound means.
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This road past a few lesser canyons toward Moab should lead us down from the clouds.
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Crow taunts us: Following roads is not the shortest route.
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The dirt road led us to nice, paved UT-128. Naturally, I see it as RT-27)
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This is your captain speaking. Passengers on the left can look out their windows and see the Colorado River, far upstream from Canyonlands, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon.
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We pull over regularly to look at rocks, or rapids. It was warm in the car when Dan slung his camera over his shoulder. Later, he zipped up his vest. Not an issue until he tried to take off the camera prior to entering the car.
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We crossed the river a ways back. Note the Colorado is on our right.
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As we head down UT-128, we stay near the river. But the Colorado Plateau (which is mostly in Utah) is rising above us.
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Those rocks up ahead on the right look spookily familiar. Like I remember them in mirror image from an overlook in Canyonlands during our 2006 trip.
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I look up from our galloping highway and those are certainly some of the pinacles one sees looking through Mesa Arch in Canyonlands.
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We turn off to drive up to Fisher Towers.
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Looking down from the gravel parking area at the Fisher Tower trailhead, one sees a tributary of the Colorado.
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We parked in the last spot in the lot. It is a hiking trailhead several miles down a dirt road, so they only have 8 spots.
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Took a few time lapse series, including on the drive from here toward Moab. The 53s video is at https://youtu.be/t7KgMz0dZbU \( https://youtu.be/t7KgMz0dZbU\)
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Karen adjusts her mask (keeps the warm, moist air in up here in the chilly heights) before joining me down by the picnic table one sees in the time lapse video. https://youtu.be/t7KgMz0dZbU \(https://youtu.be/t7KgMz0dZbU\)
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Fisher Towers are a pretty spot.
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I take a panorama on the drive down from Fisher towards Moab, and Karen takes my picture doing it. So I turn around and take her picture. And she takes one of me taking one of her. I am easy to amuse.
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Open door selfie in a window. There are so few pictures of the two of us when we travel.
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I find it amusing how modern roads follow the old trails along the path that was easiest for a horse to travel before wholesale leveling was possible.
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So we made it to Moab, and checked in to the Comfort Inn, and headed back out, up to Arches to catch the sunset.
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On entering Arches, our first National Park of the trip, Karen bought a lifetime park pass. It's like cash that only she can use. No pictures or copies allowed. Lose it, and you need to buy another.
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A brief stop in the Arches National Park visitor's center, just to check it out.
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Driving up the winding road into Arches proper, we see maintenance work still going on. Getting the cracks in the road ready for winter.
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As the sun gets lower, the light gets more interesting. Stark contrasts between shadowy roads and cloud capped mountains.
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Shadows getting long.
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I do like the late afternoon light. Karen is driving so I can shutterbug.
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Layers of ground, rock, and sky.
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A quick stop at Balanced Rock trailhead and this panorama is one of the pix I took. The rail is effectively a straight line. My long shadow is prodding me to get up to Panorama Point before sunset.
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4:16pm, and I am set up for a time lapse of the sunset on some pinnacles. I took many other pictures up here. And the time lapse turned out to be very boring. So I didn't bother to share it. But here is the start of my wait for the sunset. It is an excuse to just be. Feel the cold wind, hear the wind in the scrub, watch many neurotypical shutterbugs pull up, snap a shot, and zip off again.Karen left me to it, and did a circuit of the other overlooks, planning to return at sunset in 45 minutes.
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This is the view of the time lapse. I thought the rows of pinnacles, the layers of anticline structures, would be cool as clouds passed and the light turned everything red. I was wrong. The clouds dried up. And these were in shadow before the sun touched the horizon. Live and learn.
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4:45: The sun is geting close to the hills.
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The sunlight yellows. My tripod in front of the outhouse, and I am shading the camera behind some low scrub. Yes, the gravel here is interesting, too.
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One shot from the time lapse sequence at sunset from Panorama Point in Arches National Park.
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Telephoto view of the rocks the time lapse is shooting. The shadow of the hills is rising before the sun turns red.
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This is to where I shall point my time lapse the next time I am here for sunset.
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Looking behind me, the far side of Panorama Point
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While I was taking pictures for an hour at Panorama Point, Karen drove the full loop and took a few dozen snaps of what I had missed.
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Karen has returned. I spotted her at my rig before she saw me.
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Karen has returned, and is waiting for me at my auto-cam.
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So we head out of Arches as Dusk rapidly falls.
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Following the exodus down the mesa toward Moab.
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We stopped at Broken Oar for dinner. There was a wait, unless we were willing to share a table with a large group who was due in a little while. There was a tall centerpiece separating us. So we said, okay. We had good microbrew, and Karen had fish tacos and me a burger.
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Maybe it was the beer talking, but after dinner, I suggested going back to Arches to see the moonrise, and take some moonlight pictures.
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Not daylight. Note the stars, and the airplane trail, and the blurry scudding clouds. I held still for 50 seconds to take this shadow selfie.
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Another moonlight picture
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A selfie in the moonlight. To the naked eye, the light parts of the path were visible, but the dark were just inky.
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Karen took this flash picture of me, to show how dark it really was.
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A 30 second exposure; this is moonlight at Arches National Park. And after an hour of taking pictures like this, we were shivering a bit too much to hold still standing up on uneven ground. Thus we are blurry, while the rocks and stars are sharp. Okay, the airplane moved, too.
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Two shadows of Karen and Dan waving down to the moonlit valley.
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A flash picture of the set up, and the long exposure of a tree against the sky, with a hole in the rock near the bottom. It was deep and dark down there; no moonlight.One had to feel the way along the ground. I didn't want to ruin my night vision with a flashlight. Next trip, a red flashlight.
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About 14 hours after hitting the road today, all the batteries need charging. Good night.
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