Arches Star Trails

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It’s Wednesday afternoon and soon we’ll be setting up for our 4th and final night photographing star trails here at Arches NP. We have been blessed with spectacular weather to do the star trails (exposures of 25 to 40 minutes). Last night and this morning were the coldest temps and we stayed out until around 11:30 pm, photographing three different formations.

It is incredible to find a place to lie down and look straight up into the night sky away from most city lights. Each night we have seen several shooting stars.

Hope you enjoy a few more images from one of our beautiful National Parks. We are so blessed to have so many areas across the fruited plains preserved for us to enjoy.

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Photos

Balanced Rock with Golden Light
When we arrive in the park each afternoon the first order of business is to try and find a spot with some great light on one of the formations or arches. Tuesday evening we got this fantastic golden light on Balanced Rock just before the sun dropped below the horizon.

skyline arch
As you can see we were able to set up and have the north star above the fomation thus the circle of stars rotating around it. This arch is located near the campground in Arches. During one of our exposures (we were on the south side looking north) some people from over on the campground side were shining a flashlight up. We were concerned it might overexpose the rocks but it didn't. There were also a few car headlights that briefly hit the arch as they drove by. But fortunately they didn't affect the outcome either.

Three Gossips
I fully expected this star trail to be a complete bust. It was our third stop of the evening and when we illuminated the formation with our powerful lights there were dust particles floating in the night air. We also had the Milky Way prominently in the image (that's the lighter area in the sky). On my LCD screen this looked like a complete silhouette.

Delicate Arch First Light
This morning we took a short trail to a view of Delicate Arch from a mesa about 3/4 mile away. Here you can see the great early morning light and the shadow of Delicate Arch on the rock wall over towards another arch. In the foreground you can see part of the canyon that separated us from Delicate Arch. I'd estimate it is 500 to 1000 feet drop from the arch down to the valley below.

Double Arch
Here's Double Arch with the early morning light illuminating inside the arch. We also did some star trails here last night.

close up of Double Arch
This angle really shows the beautiful rich colors we get early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

Colorado River reflection
Here's an attempt at an artsy reflection in the Colorado River. We drove along the south bank of the River to view Birthing Rock petraglyphs.
I flipped the image so it appears upright.