Lynn WiezyckiAfter once again getting up and on the road around 4 AM, we drove back to Arches National Park and to the Broken Arch and The Fins Trailhead.
We grabbed our gear and headlamps as it was still very dark!
We followed Colleen Miniuk (our leader and mentor) along a narrow trail. We arrived by a large arch but she gathered us and told us this was Broken Arch but we were going to shoot it from the other side! So we tripped our way along an even smaller sort of trail for about 30 minutes. We had to climb up a somewhat smooth rock face but at the top, we were right next to Broken Arch.
I setup my tripod and as the light started to come up I started making some long exposures of the Arch.
As I waited for the sun to start giving me a bit more light I looked around and decided to do a Panorama with my iPhone 14 Pro Max.
We were dealing with some very cloudy skies so we never got any of that warm early morning light on the Broken Arch.
As we were getting ready to leave I had to get another shot of mountains with snow. I switched the lens on the Nikon Z7 to the FTZ and Nikon F Mount 70-200mm and made this image!
When we were ready to leave, Colleen told us we could go back around via the “sort of” trail or we could take the shortcut, just slide down the inside of the arch! Evidently, some folks come up that way but it was very steep and somewhat slick, so sliding down was a bit scary but doable! 30 seconds versus 30 minutes…yes, very doable!
As we gathered to head back toward the parking lot I made this image of the west side of Broken Arch.
Before we got back to the parking area we took a trail over to The Fins. This is a very appropriate name for these huge perpendicular rock formations.
The path takes you up to and between The Fins through some cool slots.
There were some interesting rock formations inside The Fins, along with a lot of accumulated sand. The best was Sand Dune Arch!
We took another, more narrow slot back out toward the parking lot.
We walked back out to the cars and headed back to the hotel to get some breakfast, do some downloading, have our last group meeting in the conference room, and get ready for our afternoon and sunset adventure!
I recommend a stop at the Broken Arch and for sure walk into The Fins and see Sand Dune Arch.
For larger versions of these and more images please click on any of the images or visit my gallery: Broken Arch, The Fins, and Sand Dune Arch
My next blog will be about a stop at an ancient human site we made in Canyonlands National Park.
That is all for now!
Lynn
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