Arches National Park

Just outside Moab Ut, Arches NP is acpark filled with arches,spiries, balanced rocks and eroded monoliths. They have tried to piece together how this area was formed but it appears the evidence is circumstantial. But they know that this was once a sea bed and that sea evaporated roughly 300 million years ago leaving these structures scattered around an otherwise barren landscape. It's a very popular park with bus loads of visitors arriving daily. As we had been doing, we arrived early and beat the crowds for the most part. 

The most popular spot in the park is called Delicate Arch. It is an iconic southwestern landmark. It is on the Utah licence plates and is found on most Windows operating systems as a background or space saver. 

Many flock to shoot that perfect sunrise or sunset picture with the Desol Mountains framed on the left and it's also popular with night sky photographers. That's Cassie on the center of the arch. There were probably 75 or so people there when we got there and everyone is very considerate of each other's wish to get a good shot. So everyone takes a turn going under the arch for a quick pic then they move on to make room for the next person. It's nice because it leaves you with a shot that is not full of the multitudes that are there by mid day. Here is a panoramic shot. 

After taking in Arches, we hit the road for Colorado and what we found there after 100 degree temps was a culture shock .

Luckily we packed warm clothes.