2012 Trip - Day 34

Tuesday, June 5 - Moab, UT, Day 5 - Canyonlands - 85.1 Miles Today, 5326.8 For the Trip

I spent my last day at Riverside Oasis catching some of the parts of Arches that I so far missed, at least on this trip. First I walked the Park Avenue Trail. Photos don't do it justice - the scale of the rocks on both sides is amazing. After that watched Venus track across the sun, a once in lifetime event, at least for me (and most of us since it doesn't happen again until 2117). They set up viewing stations at Panorama Point & Sand Dune Arch.

After that it was back to the trailer for an early steak dinner since the plan was to hike to Delicate Arch around sunset. As usual, I got started early and stopped to take a couple of photos of Wolf Ranch & the Ute Petroglyphs at the bottom of the trail, and reached the arch around 7:30. While I could have waited until sunset, the wind was bad enough that I only stayed for about 20 minutes. It felt like shooting during a hurricane. In fact, it probably was close since 60mph winds were predicted. You had to move carefully to keep from being blown off the cliff during the peaks.

After that I shot a couple of images of Skyline Arch and Balanced Rock at sunset.