Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch

Tunnel Arch is along a side trail off the main Devils Garden trail at the end of the main road into Arches National Park.  I'm not sure which of these two arches is Tunnel Arch - they both go through though the one of the left is smaller and has a ceiling opening into the rock above it, so I suspect it is the larger one on the right.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/5, ISO 100.

Pine Tree Arch was the last one we visited on this hike into the Devils Garden trail area and is not too far beyond Tunnel Arch on the side trail off the Devils Garden trail.  You can even see it from the crest of the trail before it drops into the valley below.  If you look closely at the rock at the top of the opening in the arch, you can see lots of cracks that makes me think that only the slight "V" shape of the area and that the crack on the right doesn't go all the way through to the other side of the fin the arch is in is the only thing keeping these blocks of rock from falling and enlargening the arch.  I ran through the window in the arch quickly to minimize the probability that I would be under the block when it eventually falls....  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 100.

Sand Dune Arch

Sand Dune Arch in Arches National Park is a short and easy hike into a narrow canyon between two fins of sandstone.  The hard part of the hike is the soft sand but the tall canyon walls makes the area cooler than other more exposed hikes elsewhere in the park.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/5, ISO 100.

Landscape Arch panorama

This is a mini panorama of Landscape Arch in Arches National Park.  With my 24mm lens, I could not quite get the whole arch in one shot, but a left-center-right set worked great.  This arch is the longest in the world and has shown some signs of its eventual demise when  a large chunk of rock fell from it in 1991.  As the rangers in the park said: See it while you can!

Delicate Arch at Arches National Park

We spent the last week on a road trip from Tucson up to Yellowstone National Park via several other parks along the way.  We arrived at Arches National Park on Tuesday last week. This view of Delicate Arch was taken from the upper viewpoint about a mile away.  It was created by doing an HDR combine of 3 images  at -1 stop, 0 and +1 stop from the nominal metered exposure that would have been at 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.  The exposures were obtained with my 75-300mm zoom at 300mm focal length.  Note the person standing next to the arch to get an idea of the size of it.  This is the most famous Arch in the park and is the Utah state symbol.  Below is an HDR combination of three images using my 24mm lens with -1, 0, +1 stop exposures showing the general setting of Delicate Arch:

Thus quoth the Raven

This Common Raven just wants to make sure you to know that collecting petrified wood is prohibited. Amazingly, he sat on this sign making quite a racket despite numerous people, some with their pet dogs on leashes, walking past him on a nearby trail (some dogs even barking!). He was there long enough for me to get my camera back out of the car after I had stowed it away and change lenses so I could get the telephoto on to get a decent shot of him. It probably took me a minute or more to get organized, then I was able to slowly walk around him and snap 10 shots before my battery chose that moment to decide it was empty (my camera bag with a spare was back in the car....). This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/180 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

A recent fall?

Some of these petrified trees look like they fell within the last decade, not 225 million years ago! This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Of snow and petrified wood

Some areas of the Petrified Forest National Park are literally covered in petrified wood. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

The Crystal Forest

In what could almost be a lunar landscape, petrified trees lie all over the landscape. This iamge was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Painted Desert to Petrified Forest

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks are part of a common geological setting. One can see petrified wood from the viewpoints along the loop road that curves north of Interstate 40 through the Painted Desert before turning west and then south across the interstate and to the main section where the Petrified Forest takes over. And where the petrified wood is very visible, it is against the backdrop of the Painted Desert landscape. Here is a view of some fantastic layered geology just before getting to the most prolific displays of petrified wood along the loop road south of I-40. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/1250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Newspaper Rock

The Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs are aptly named - the face of this rock laying at the base of a small cliff is literally covered in Petroglyphs. Newspaper Rock is not far from Puerco Pueblo, another site with lots of Petroglyphs in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest (see my blog entries on December 21 titled Puerco Pueblo Petroglyphs and Petroglyph Closeup). This image was taken at 168mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Puerco Pueblo ruins

Here is a segment of the Puerco Pueblo ruins that has not be excavated. You can make out the general shape of a straight wall in the rocky rubble in the middle of the frame. It is fascinating to be able to recognize such structures and imagine what it might have been like to inhabit this area when it was active. Of course, I prefer the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing and electricity, not to mention the store down the street where I buy most of my food..... This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Puerco Pueblo Ruins

These are some of the ruins at Puerco Pueblo in the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest National Park. This section of the ruins was reconstructed by archeologists. Most of the ruins are still buried and only surveyed for their position and can be spotted if you know what to look for. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Petroglyph closeup

Here's a closer view of the angled petroglyph, just left of center. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Puerco Pueblo Petroglyphs

The Puerco Pueblo in the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park is a site of ancient ruins as well as a large collection of Petroglyphs including these. If you examine the petroglyphs on this rock, most of them are vertical, however, just below the light layer in the rock is a four legged creature which is angled perpendicular to the natural layering in the rock, suggesting that it predates the other petroglyphs to a time when the rock sat with the layering parallel to the ground. This image was taken at 133mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Hills and more Hills

There are hills and more hills in this shot. You can see the complex geology written in the layers of these hills in the Painted Desert. This image was taken at 214mm foca length with an exposure of 1/1800 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Painted Desert

This telephoto shot across the Painted Desert shows the distant hills on the Navajo Reservation on the horizon as well as the complex and crumbling landsacape on the nearer Painted Desert. This image was taken at 214mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1800 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Painted Desert

Another view of the Painted Desert. This imge was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Tiponi Point, Painted Desert

My sweetie enjoys the view from Tiponi Point along the Painted Desert loop road. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 at f/8, ISO 100.

Snow covered Painted Desert

We were away for the weekend in northeast Arizona for a teachers workshop which my wife helped run. On the way back home, we spend Sunday at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park, following a loop road through beautiful sno covered views of the Painted Desert such as this one as well as archeological sites and fields of petrified wood. Here, you can see the spectacular colors of the Painted Desert partly masked by snow from last weeks stormy weather. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/11, ISO 400.