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| Turret Arch, Arches National Park. (click any image to enlarge) All images in this post were made with an OM-1 II & 12-100mm f/4 lens unless otherwise noted. |
It is hard to believe, but this entire trip was based around when I could obtain an early morning entrance pass for Arches National Park. Arches National Park, evidently, has become so crowded that the National Park Service (NPS) now issues hourly entrance permits. In order to enter the park, one must obtain and pay for an entrance permit in advance that then gives the holder a one hour timeframe on one particular day in which to enter the park.
For example, if your entrance permit is for 8 a.m. on June 11, 2025, you only have from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m. on June 11 to enter the park. After 9 a.m. you forfeit your opportunity. All that sounds a bit inconvenient, but I will tell you from my previous two times visiting the park the permit system is working pretty well in keeping visitors to a manageable number. Because of how Arches is configured, parking is limited and if all of the parking spaces are taken, you have no chance to see the very formations for which you came to visit. So the permit system serves its purpose well. On the day we visited, we found the park moderately crowded but were able to do and see everything we wanted.
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| The Three Gossips, about 350 ft. (107m) tall. |
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| That's me way up there in the center of the arch! I climbed the rocks because she wanted to but then decided it wasn't for her! |
As I mentioned, I had been there twice before, but my wife had not. We spent several hours enjoying ourselves, hiking the trails to get closer to the arches as well as viewing nearby arches and other rock formations. Overall, we had a wonderful day there.
As a side note, my wife asked me if I wanted to climb up into one of the arches with her. I told her no, I didn’t have a need to do that. She was persistent. Reluctantly, I agreed. After I climbed up a very difficult rock face (even for someone who is not 73 years old as am I), I turned around to help her up to where I was situated. No. She changed her mind. She decided she wasn’t going to do it! Too hard, she said. She tricked me! I continued up the rocks and into the arch. She then photographed me with her iPhone up in the arch. You can see ‘tiny’ me in relation to this giant arch formation. Coming down was just as difficult as the sandstone is smooth and relatively slick. Not too bad of a climb for an old man, if I must say so myself! Lol.
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| North Window Arch. For reference, the arch is 51 ft. (15.5m) high and 93 ft. (28m) wide. |
Photographically speaking, in Arches I used the OM-1 Mark II for almost all of my photography. As in Dead Horse Point State Park, they were a couple attractive rock formations near the parking areas and I grabbed my Fujifilm X-100VI for those. Arches was the only place I found I wished I had more focal length than provided by the 12-100mm f/4 lens. We were quite a distance away from the famous Delicate Arch and I wanted to make a ‘record’ shot of it. It was for that shot I wished I had a 400mm lens instead of a 200mm lens. That said, I did photograph it using the 50mp Handheld High Resolution mode and I was able to crop in sufficiently to make a couple of decent photographs of delicate arch.
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| I liked this little scene. It was a considerable distance away and quite a bit above me. But it was unique. |
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| The Fiery Furnace area of the park. I guess these could be considered to be hoodoos as one finds in Bryce Canyon National Park. Just a bit different. |
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| Balanced Rock. It is 138 ft. (39m) tall. Hard to tell from an image. |
My photographic goal for this trip, as I have mentioned, was not to extensively photograph but to make a couple of representative photos of the places we visited. So far, I think I have succeeded.
I should say something about the town of Moab. One word. Busy. Traffic is heavy along the main road/street through town—all of the time, it seems. But the people we met were very nice and we ate a a couple of very good restaurants.
Next, we drive across Utah to Bryce Canyon National Park.
Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Dennis, really enjoying your trip notes. A question about your OM-1 Mk 11. What differences, if any, do you note aside from perhaps AF improvements, compared to the Mk 1?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment and question. Like the other Olympus and OM cameras, the AF is fast and accurate. I’ve been using Olympus cameras since 2013 and I’ve always felt they have had one of the fastest and best AF systems of any camera and any format. That doesn’t get much comment or credit but the AF system should. That said, the biggest difference I have noticed between the Mark I and Mark II OM cameras in regards to AF is the better subject detection. The Mark II finds and locks on subjects faster than the Mark I. Just as a general comment, out of all the images I’ve made on this road trip, I only had one 5-shot bracketing sequence slightly out of focus. Very slightly. The images were shot in near total darkness at the base of a slot canyon. Other sequences in the slot canyon were sharp. In fact, the AF surprised me in locking on AF in such darkness, but it did! ~Dennis
DeleteEnjoying your stories and photos from your trip Dennis. Especially you getting tricked :-). It looks like from that photo that it is a little cool out there. - Jim
ReplyDeleteJim, thanks. Overnight and the mornings are cool but the afternoons warm up nicely. The humidity is so low that it feels cooler than it actually is. Couple that with a nice breeze and a jacket does the trick. My wife asked me several times if I would climb up into the arch with her. I told her I felt no real need to do that. She then started off to climb so, feeling guilty, I followed. I climbed up the rocks, stopped and turned around to help her up. That’s when she decided that it was too dangerous and difficult! I couldn’t believe it! Lol. ~Dennis
DeleteThank you for the opportunity to vicariously travel along on experiences of your westward journey.
ReplyDeleteThe account of your trip to Arches NP brought back many memories of family trips there in the 1990’s. In particular, the memory of why they call that part of Utah, “Slick Rock”. Unseen are the micro grains of sand on the rocks that act as ball bearings should you slip. I am glad you made that climb without event. I recall a similar climb in which a slip and bounce resulted in bruises. These days, I would have ended up in a body cast.
I hope the bill board at the Apache Motel in Moab is still there announcing “John Wayne Slept Here”. We stayed at the Apache just because of the billboard.
Good traveling to Cedar City, the lava beds, and Bryce Canyon NP. I hope the inn is still there that had the taxidermist mounted mountain lions. One would not want to meet up with one of those on a trail.
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad my post brought back memories. You are exactly right about the micro grains of sand on the smooth rock, essentially acting like ball bearings. Each step is tentative. That makes climbing and descending quite tricky! I didn’t notice the Apache Motel. But if John Wayne stayed there, well…. I did stay at the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, NM the last time I traveled Route 66. John Wayne and about 50 other movie stars have stayed there while making movies in the area. The rooms were tiny and not really up to modern standards but it was fun to stay where the famous people stayed! ~Dennis
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