Last weekend I spent way too much time looking for a couple of photos I knew I’d taken and were somewhere on a hard drive along with my other thousands of photographs. I’ve been using Lightroom for both photo processing and as an image catalog for many years, and I have taken great pride in keeping track of my image collection. I was frustrated that I couldn’t find the original images for a post I’d made on my blog quite some time ago. I wanted to find the original to apply a new processing technique from what I know I would have done to the image for that post awhile back.

The short story is that I finally found the originals along with a collection of over 450 images captured on a cell phone I no longer own. When I upgraded cell phones, I’d moved all of the images to a single folder in a personal photos directory and neglected to import them into Lightroom. Those early blog images were processed with Adobe Photoshop Elements. This discovery, freshly imported into Lightroom will now provide me with many weeks of Cellpic Sunday images.

About the photo: If you look carefully underneath the large rock on the right, you’ll see a trail. That’s the hiking trail known as Courthouse Wash. From a quick Google search, I found lots of information about the 5.5 mile (8.8 km) trail. It’s apparently an easy and relatively level hike along a wash and will take 3-4 hours to complete for the average hiker. I didn’t know the trail existed when I took the photo. I was simply struck by the color of the trees and the red rock background.

The image above isn’t the photo I was looking for, but was one of the many images I captured on my cell phone while traveling through Utah in October, 2013. The late fall trip found us on a highway that crosses Courthouse Wash. I happened to snap two images that were close enough together to create a panorama. I know that’s courthouse wash because there is a sign that says so. It’s near the center of the image and is almost invisible unless you “zoom into” the image. The original image quality allowed easy reading of the sign using Lightroom’s scaling feature. On most browsers, you can click on the image above to get a larger view. There, you will be able to see the sign, but on my computer, I couldn’t read it from that scale distance. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple. The image (or in this case, images) must be captured on a mobile device.

John Steiner

Sunrise in the Park

Moab, UT

In the Utah high desert, smack dab in the middle of the “Colorado Plateau“, lays two national parks, Canyonlands and Arches. Only a few minutes’ drive from the town of Moab Utah, these two national parks attract vacationers all year round. On our annual trek between Fargo and Phoenix, Lynn and I stayed overnight at Moab and spent a couple of days exploring the two parks.

The single scenic road in the park meanders around giant sandstone formations

The weather was sunny and warm, but early in the morning in late October, the hoodies we brought along were welcome wear until the sun started warming the air for the day. We started our morning at the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint, along with a small group of people, cameras and tripods at the ready; awaiting sunrise and the golden hour.

South Window is one of two arches in the same formation. The size of the arch can be gauged by the height of the people standing underneath.

Arches Park distinguishes itself featuring over 2000 documented natural stone arches. In addition to the arches, there are many other natural sandstone sculptures created by millions of years of wind and water erosion. Though the Colorado Plateau is a desert, this area gets more precipitation than other deserts areas, averaging 9 inches per year. The falling rain erodes the sandstone and in the winter, ice forms in cracks, expanding them, and eventually weakening and breaking off a section of the relatively soft rock.

A large rock balances on a sandstone pedestal

A single road meanders through the park with “detours” to take visitors to view specific arches or other landmarks. Once in the parking area, you can expect to do some walking to reach the featured elements in that area. Some of those walks could more correctly be called hikes, and the feature could be a mile or more from where the car is parked. Signs at the trailheads are well marked and you can choose to make the hike or not, secure in the knowledge of the length of the hike. The Arches website has a list of hiking trails. Many of the popular attractions are at the end of easy hikes. One of the longer hikes is to Delicate Arch, but there are shorter hikes to viewpoints that are some distance from the arch. One of those hikes is handicap accessible, only 100 yards (91 meters); and the other, a climbing half-mile (0.8 km), led us to the viewpoint from where I took the photo below.

From a distance, Delicate Arch looks to be quite small. If you look closely to the right of the base, you’ll see a person wearing red and blue clothing.

Late fall is a good time to visit the park. In the summer, high temperatures and summer vacationers make the park more difficult to negotiate. As it turned out, there were very few people visiting each site we viewed when we got there. There was a tour bus at the South Window when we arrived and the busload of people was just finishing their stay. As we walked the short distance to the arch itself, the people on the bus tour were just leaving. As we visited each site, the tour bus was either just leaving as we arrived or just arriving as we were getting ready to leave. For once, our timing was impeccable.

Hidden inside a sandstone canyon, Sand Dune Arch is and easy 0.4 miles (0.6 km) round trip from the parking area

The parking area near Sand Dune Arch is a trailhead for several separate paths to different features. We chose the shorter trail to Sand Dune Arch and were rewarded with a cool, shady view of the arch. Expect to get sand in your shoes if you aren’t wearing high top hiking boots. The walk through the area near the arch reminded me of a walk on a sandy beach.

Skyline Arch can be viewed from many places in the park

Skyline Arch is an easy hike from the parking area, though the going gets tough if you wish to stand underneath the arch. This arch opening was much smaller until 1940 when a large part of the arch support broke away. The size of the opening became twice as large. Though the arches appear to be permanent, wind and water erosion is a constant threat. There are many examples of former arches in the park. Eventually, each arch will fail as erosion takes its toll.

Landscape Arch is one of the first of several arches found along the trails in Devil’s Garden

At the end of the scenic drive through the park is the Devil’s Garden Trailhead. The trail is the longest in the park and winds past many iconic arches. The 7.2 mile (11.5 km) round trip will take three to five hours, and the narrow ledges and slick rock surfaces lead to a recommendation that the trail be avoided in wet or snowy weather. If you choose to walk this trail, bring plenty of water. You will be rewarded with some beautiful natural architecture. One of the largest arches in the park is Landscape Arch which spans 305 feet across the base.

The high desert contains a wide variety of desert-adapted vegetation

The National Park Service Arches webpage contains a wealth of information about visiting the park. Start your trip there and plan accordingly. The desert can be an unforgiving place. Bring plenty of water. A good pair of walking shoes is a prerequisite. Hiking boots are recommended for the more advanced trails. This park is not best viewed from inside your car window. You must get out and walk to see much of the hidden beauty that has endured over the centuries.

John Steiner