Words and Light

So it’s been a while since I last posted. This past weekend, I went to St. Louis for a Taylor Swift concert (yes — I am a very big fan), and yesterday I was pretty busy in Jefferson City bureau.

But this is a pretty quick post anyway.

• DAY 5 (Friday, March 27)

Our campsite along the Colorado River was beautiful, but the canyon through which the river winds is virtually a wind tunnel. Thursday night was our one night of extreme camping. On more than one occasion, the wind blew the side of the tent so hard down that the tent wall was squashing me from my head to my waist. Plus, it was pretty cold.

So in the morning, we packed up in a hurry — mostly to keep ourselves warm! Then we drove further down along the river to take sunrise photos of the river bluffs.

Then we re-entered Arches National Park for a quick morning of taking photos. We weren’t in any particular hurry: our final destination for the day was Montrose, Colo., which is the closest city/town to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and a mere 171 miles away from Arches.

Nevertheless, we decided to hit up some of the closer formations instead of those further within the park.

For example, the Windows formation.

I am pretty sure this is one side of the North Window.

The North Window, from the other side.

Both the Windows (south on the left, north on the right) in their formation.

Nearby is also the Turret Arch, but we didn’t go there. As Esten said, once you see one arch, you kinda see them all.

I did want to go to the Turret Arch. But I was also pretty cold. It was at least 35 degrees and windy.

In retrospect, my focus point should've been on the arch and not on the pathway. That said, I did set my focus point intentionally on the pathway. Oh well.

Then we hopped into the car and drove off and out of Utah. We hit up Pablo’s Pizza in Grand Junction, Colo., for lunch. But other than that, a fairly unremarkable trip. Which was fine by me, after photographing out the window every five minutes during Day 4’s drive across Utah.

• COMING NEXT: Ever heard of Black Canyon of the Gunnison? Me either