Thankfully, Bunky was feeling better so we could get moving early enough to make our 8am reservation for the park. The sky was so pretty, I was stopping along the road to take pics as soon as we entered the park …

We were at our first stop, Balanced Rock, pretty early. I wouldn’t say it was crowded, but there were already plenty of people there walking around marveling at this huge rock that looks precariously balanced on the top of a stone pedestal. The light was still soft and golden and there were some amazing clouds in the background for a short period of time this morning.

The Windows was next and it was just a short distance. Another fascinating photo opportunity.

Double Arches was another short hike nearby …

We stopped at Delicate Arch Viewpoint because we knew we weren’t going to hike that so we’d have to be happy with a shot of that in the distance.

From there we drove to Sand Dune Arch Trail several miles away. It was only a .3 mile round trip hike and didn’t take much time. Now we know why. LOL It really wasn’t all that. You should google Sand Dune Arch Trail and see the images they taunt you with. In comparison, this is what I got:

Broken Arch Trail is connected to Sand Dune Arch Trail so we figured we may as way add the 2 mile round trip to our morning. We hiked with a lovely couple from PA who have been traveling the country since 2009 in their RV. They’ve been to all 50 states and all the national parks (they think). They are now going to them again. How awesome is that?

By this point we had been up and moving since 6:30am, hiked about 4 miles and were ready for a rest. We needed to save something for tomorrow anyway. This is a small park and you really could do everything in a long day if you wanted to, so we’re stretching it out. We went back to the room and someone (me) took a nap and chilled until it was time to head back into the park for possible sunset pics. Since we had plenty of time before sunset we swung by to see the petroglyphs that we elected to pass over earlier in the day – it was just too crowded. Pretty cool stuff …

We drove around scoping out various areas of the park to get a feel for different vantage points and ended up at the Windows parking lot just to sit around and wait to see if there was going to be a show tonight. As we sat there heavy clouds covered more and more of the sky. It was hard to predict how the light would be and if there would be enough color to make it worth our while. So we just hung out in the parking lot and waited. They say patience is a photographer’s main virtue. Most of their time is just sitting and waiting for that perfect moment. Well … we waited … and I wouldn’t call the evening a bust, but it wasn’t a sell out show either.

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Time to call it a day and head back to the hotel. We grabbed some appetizers from the restaurant and calling it a night. Tomorrow is a hike to Landscape Arch and exploring Moab to see what kind of trouble we can get into. 🙂