Mesa Arch

As I have written before, I visited Canyonlands last year in order to ride the white rim trail on my mountain bike. The bike I rode it unfortunately was stolen, but I digress. Because I got there the evening before (Halloween actually) our ride and was camping out on the campground (nobody there at that time of year), I visited false kiva in the evening and did Mesa Arch the next morning. A great surprise was to meet my buddy Dave at the trailhead. I have written about the gaggle of photographers at Mesa Arch before. This place is extraordinarily popular since it is an ultrashort hike and sunrise is spectacular. Some clouds would have made the scene better (with some gap light preferably) than I captured here but nevertheless I am happy with what I got.


Mesa Arch sunstar. Buy a print.
Assembled from 15 shots (3 rows of 5) at 35mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/5s. This is an ultrahigh resolution image. In large prints, you will notice reflections from puddles of water standing in the little pits that you see all around white rim.


Why it glows. Buy a print.
Single shot, Nikon 18-55mm at 18mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/40s handheld.


Everybody left, still glowing! Buy a print.
Single shot, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, ISO 200, f/8, 1/100s


Washerwoman and La Sals framed. Buy a print.
Single shot, ISO 200, 18-55mm Nikon at 48mm, f/9, 1/60s

See the entire gallery at my smugmug site. Many more Canyonlands images are here.

Photographers at Mesa Arch

The Gaggle

Last November, I was in Canyonlands for a ride around White Rim. The first night I arrived there (Hallow's eve) I visited False Kiva, which is an awesome archeological site. After a very frosty night, I got up early enough to break down my tent (frost on it!) and drive over to Mesa Arch trailhead. This is an extremely popular site for photographers to go in the morning as it is a 10 minute hike to a very spectacular view. The rising sun lights the canyon wall below this arch and makes the bottom glow bright red. When I got to the trailhead, a truck pulls up next to me and it turns out to be my buddy Dave. He apparently arrived at the campground very late at night and slept in the back of his truck and heard me drive off, jumped up and followed me. Dave must have been very cold, but he is probably used to it as he is a colonel in the Air Force that spent quite a bit of time in various places around the world. I have had a gallery up on smugmug for a while that I will describe on my blog some time in the future. For now, here are some pictures of the gaggle of photographers that showed up. It can get much worse apparently.


Did we get the shot?


My buddy Dave and my homemade panohead.