Arches National Park lies north of Moab in the state of Utah. Bordered by the Colorado River in the southeast, it’s known as the site of more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches.

"Double Arch takes its name because it consists of two arches that share the same stone as a foundation for both of their outer legs. Double Arch was formed by downward water erosion from atop the sandstone, rather than from side-to-side water erosion."

Utah.com

Photographed at Double Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, USA

The canopy of stars in the sky at Moab, Utah, along with the amazing rock formations, serve to make many dramatic scenes that make great photo opportunities! It's hard not to get some decent shots.

Quite cosmic there at Arches while the comet was in the sky. A treat to see it there through the arch. The light painting was done by bouncing the light off the rocks below the arches. The light only lasted about 2 seconds for the 15 second exposure.

Happy Sliders Sunday

This is a view that would be fun to take if you get the Milky Way to align correctly ... but alas with Sliders Sunday it can become reality ;)

The light in the center of the arches was from my daughter and her boyfriend, and the light beyond the arches was from a family approaching the scene with some very bright lights ... the combination of lighting worked well here.

The Milky Way sky used here was from one of my captures at Bryce Canyon from this same trip.

Double Arch at Arches National Monument

The red LED lights here in the frame were not from us, but from two other sources. There were two hikers who were sitting off in the rocks to our right that put some light on the close rock in the frame, and the light on the arches was from two new hikers that came there with the LED lights on their foreheads and were hiking in to get to the underside of the one arch (that seems to be what most people do).

These two were doing it in the dark, which did not seem too smart. But I did take advantage of them doing this to capture the light hitting the arches above during this and some other exposures.

The results turned out pretty nice there with the Comet Neowise also in the scene.

Hikers with red LED lights were sitting by the foreground rock, and some others were off under the arches. Those lights are nice as they do not blind your eyes in the dark. The ones under the arches lit them up nicely during my 15 second capture of the comet and stars.

The light on the arches was from my daughter and her boyfriend. I had them shine their lights down on the floor to bounce it back up ... they had the lights on for about 3 to 4 seconds of the 15 second exposure. It was nice having them there to do this so I did not have to scramble about in the dark.

Not sure where the bright red light came from during this exposure ... assume it was from car headlights bouncing off red rock ... but it lit up the surrounding landscape and rock formations by Double Arch. An amazing place to be while the comet was there in the sky.

Hikers with lights were also below the Double Arch area adding light there within the arches.

Very early about 90 minutes before sunrise under half a moon lighting the landscape there in Arches National Park. Was enough light that I was able to hike without the need a flashlight.

Also nice as no one was there around 4 in the morning, so no need to clone out the people :)

Arrived now in Grand Teton National Park ... so will be exploring more of that park. Been quite some time since we have been here last.

... I wonder if somebody has a photo of me taking this capture of the other two people under the other arch while I am under the second arch ...

Liked this perspective taken with the two standing there helping to give some scale.

Also took another a few moments later when the climbed down.

Shot of Double Arch at Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. I was going to wait to see if I could get this shot without people in it, but then decided that the people helped provide a sense of scale. This is one of the many amazing sights to take in and explore at the park. And, the park has great dark night skies -- awesome for Milky Way photography and stargazing!

Double Arch and Elephant Butte at Arches National Park in Utah.

Happy Fence Friday!

I used my iPhone and did a ground to sky pano to get this perspective from inside Double Arch

Night was slowly taking over the sky with stars coming out ... Playing around with some early light painting as things slowly darkened.

Thunderstorms came blustering into Arches National Park this evening. While everyone was scrambling for their cars, I looked for a spot where the rain could be mostly blocked allowing for this cool moody capture of the rains pelting the red rocks sideways in the strong winds ... almost looking like fog.

An hour before this rain fell, had a great experience there when another photographer that was there in the Turret Arch area asked me my name. When I told him, he asked if I was Ken from Flickr. Turns out he was Marcus one of my contacts. The funny thing is, we were both at Arches National Park about 7 years ago on the same day, but he was at Delicate Arch, and I was at the Windows area when there was a great rainbow in the sky.

What is the chance that we would be there again on the same day and also get to meet up. Was fun to talk about photography and other items, including being socially distant with the current travels. A fun experience and memory to add to this trip.

A spectacular feature of the Taranaki coast were the Twin Arches. Few people ever got to see them. They collapsed some time in early 2017 less than a year after I took this picture.

A group of hikers with lights approached the arches with their lights hitting into the scene from afar adding some nice soft fill light. Two other hikers were already there under the arches looking back over the landscape towards the Milky Way that was in the sky off frame.

Double arch in the Arches National Park outside Moab Utah

Moonlight (about a quarter moon) there around 3:21 in the night heading towards dawn.

This is Double Arch, located in the Windows section of Arches National Park. It's a short walk to it from the parking lot but be sure to wear a hat and take some water, which I didn't! And there's lots of people, you might have to wait for a moment to get a clear photo. Or do some photo-shopping.....

An amazing time it was there in the early morning with the moonlight and stars. Magical to be in Arches, and even more so at that early hour before sunrise.

"Grosvenor Arch is a unique sandstone double arch located within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Kane County, Utah, United States. It is named to honor Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (1875–1966), a president of the National Geographic Society, publishers of the National Geographic Magazine" Cott, John W. Van (1990).

Utah Place Names: A Comprehensive Guide to the Origins of Geographic Names : a Compilation.

Happy Slider Sunday ...

Been a while since I took an extra long trip ... this time I trekked off to Mars and Phobos. Here was hiking around that smaller moon taking in the alien views as 'Mars' can be seen rising overhead with the Milky Way beyond.

Used my capture taken at night at Double Arch with moonlight (in monochrome), combined with a recent Milky Way capture sky, and then brought in the eclipsed blood moon to play the part of the Red Planet.

No lunar bodies were harmed in the creation of this image ;)

Late afternoon light there in Utah

So it has been great the comet Neowise was out in the sky adding to the opportunities for some night captures in addition to the Milky Way.

GOT Extremely lucky on this night where was planning on some night shots in silhouette and light painting at Double Arch, which I was not able to do last year when we passed through Moab. The comet Neowise could be seen through the arch. So very cool.

We also had to stop by and visit the dinosaurs again at Moab Giants late yesterday so that my youngest daughter and her boyfriend could walk among the beasts. It was a mostly cloudy afternoon so as we were there I was thinking that some dinosaur crops in some night shots might look cool.

Mrs. Krach is also doing a teacher webinar the past several days and today's project was working on a packet related Extinction Events ... SO ... the idea of the T-Rex there in this night capture of the comet at Double Arch came to mind. Cropped him in, and added the shadow for the fun effect.

Hope you enjoy this 'event view' as much as I had taking the captures and then playing with them.

BTW - the light painting here was done by my daughter and her boyfriend who were among the rocks there making this night capture at Double Arch work well with the light painting. I had them bounce the light off the rocks up into the arches.

Now heading back out for some photo taking while she continues with her webinar.

Arches National Park Utah

Double Arch is a close-set pair of natural arches, one of the more known features of Arches National Park in Utah, United States. From the Double Arch parking area it's a 0.5 mile (0.8 km) round trip to the arches.There are no guardrails or fences to prevent visitors from exploring directly beneath and through the arches.

The area was used as a backdrop for the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which the arches are briefly visible. However, the cave shown in the movie does not exist.

Double Arch was formed differently from most of the arches in Arches National Park. It is what is known as a pothole arch;it formed by water erosion from above rather than more typical erosion from the side. The larger opening has a span of 148 feet (45 m) and a height of 104 feet (32 m).These dimensions give the arch the tallest opening and second longest span in the park.

Windows in Arches National Park

Constructed in 1882, the historic Chicago & Northwestern Railway Stone Arch Bridge is is a popular stopping point along the Stone Bridge Trail that today runs along the former railway bed between Rockton and Roscoe in Winnebago County, north of the City of Rockford. The double-arch bridge, which crosses over South Kinnikinnick Creek, is made of dolomitic limestone. The bridge replaced an earlier wooden structure, and was a key element in the local sand quarry commerce which supplied Chicago, 90 miles to the east, with the necessary elements for masonry and concrete construction materials.

The C&NW RR Stone Arch Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

I think, this is one of the most beautiful arch in the park.

This formation has two enormous arches. It is easy to access and thus is very popular. Darkness was fast approaching so fewer people were in the arch than usual. One person played a few tunes on a harmonica which made the experience quite lovely.

Happy Slider Sunday!

Windows in Arches National Park

Double Arch was formed differently from most of the arches in Arches National Park, an area with the largest concentration of natural arches in the entire world.

Double Arch is what is known as a pothole arch formed by water erosion from above rather than more typical erosion from the side. The larger opening has a span of 148 feet and a height of 104 feet.

There are no guardrails or fences to prevent visitors from exploring directly beneath and through the arches.

Thank you for your comments,

Gemma

Copyright ©Maria Gemma June, 2015

A moody evening there at Double Arch ... liked catching the hikers up there in the arch helping to bring in the scale of the scene.

Double Arch is a natural sandstone formation in one of the best (in my opinion) parks in all of America, Arches National Park. This particular set of arches were formed differently from most of the arches in the park. The formation started as a pothole arch, formed by water erosion from above rather than the standard erosion for arches, which is normally from each side. The larger opening has a span of 148 feet (45 m) and a height of 104 feet (32 m). These dimensions give the arch the tallest opening and second-longest span in the park.

Arches National Park contains the highest density of arches in the world, more than 2000 natural sandstone arches. It also features a variety of unique geological formations such as Balanced Rock, The Three Gossips and The Tower of Babel. It borders the Colorado River on the Colorado Plateau and is 4 miles north of Moab, Utah. It’s truly high desert, receiving an average of less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain annually. In spite of it’s relatively remote location the park received more than 1.6 million visitors in 2018 and the lines outside to get in can be long…So get there early.

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While taking this capture of the comet through the arches, some far off car lights hit into the scene adding some fill light on the rocky structures.

Looking from within and high inside Double Arch, the Milky Way can be seen crossing the night sky to touch the distant horizon as thousands of stars shine like diamonds in the sky above.