It’s one in the morning on an unusually cool June evening atop the sandstone hills in Arches National Park. I’m sitting opposite the Park’s star attraction – Delicate Arch – barely visible in the late night, only slightly illuminated by the setting crescent moon. I’ve been here for four hours
now. At least, my camera has. I hiked the Delicate Arch trail a few hours before, after spending most of my day avoiding the heat inside a McDonalds, mooching their free wifi while editing photos and writing articles, the glamorous life of a travel photographer. Thankfully by six in the evening the oppressing Moab heat had lessened and I started the journey upward.
Out of all the hikes I’ve done in Arches (which admittedly isn’t all of them), this one is by far the hardest, especially with 50 pounds of camera equipment on your back. Practically vertical at times with just bare rock and the occasional marker signaling the way. One thing I always forget is that when people call Delicate Arch the “most popular” arch in the
park, they aren’t kidding. That phrase comes with people. Lots of people. Those of you who have done that hike know. Two hours before sunset, the rock face opposite the arch was packed with people. Easily 100 men, women, and carefree children lined the sloping sandstone surface, forcing people moving to go dangerously close to the edge of the basin. The kids, of course, don’t care. Hordes of them running at what looks like a 45 degree angle. One slip and off they go, and other than the nice French tourists sitting next to me, no one seemed bothered.
The sunset was beautiful that evening. I assume pretty much all of them are. As the sun dipped behind the horizon, the mass of people slowly started to dwindle. But I sat in my spot. I was waiting for what I’d researched and planned for. The shot I’ve always wanted to get. About an hour after the sun went down I was able to complete part one, the shot of the arch. In star photography, a big problem is getting a clear and crisp foreground. Long exposures tend to blur the subject of your photo, so the dying daylight is the perfect time to take it. But once I got that, the wait began. I waited. And waited. And waited. And finally, in the early
morning, I saw the gorgeous milky trails of our galaxy start to peek above the arch. Everything lining up in perfect harmony, I got my shot, the Milky Way above Delicate Arch.
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