Monument Valley, Utah, USA, 27th October 2014.

Heading from Arches National Park towards Monument Valley, we stopped off at Indian Hat, where there is a curious balanced rock.  This is an infrared view.

.

Suddenly, a truck unexpectedly thundered along the narrow dirt road.  The sign on the side of the cabin says “Monument Resources Rock Products”.  So maybe getting a load of gravel for a road.  This may look like a normal image but actually it’s infrared.  You can get the colours to do all sorts of things.

.

Conversely, here is Indian Hat in natural colours.

.

Now this one looks more like infrared, also beside Indian Head.  I have been separating out the infrared images in separate posts but there are only a few this time.

.

Here it is.  Monument Valley.  John Wayne.  Stagecoach.  Navajo land.

.

.

.

.

The mesas are from Permian era sandstone, originally deposited from sand dunes, eroded away over a long period of time to leave what you see.  The very top of the “monuments” are capped by triassic rocks, which would imply that the rocks between Permian and Triassic times eroded away.  However, it’s not as simple as just erosion because the whole Colorado Plateau was uplifted between 70 million and 40 million years ago, originally from sea level to 5,000 metres above.

.

The shadows are lengthening.  in this case the shadows of other members of the group.

.

.

.

And now the light’s getting quite low.

.

.

.

.

.

There was a sun there, but now it’s gone.

.

Mesa Arch and Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, USA, 26th October 2014.

Mesa Arch (also known as Masa Arch) is a location you walk into for the great view through the arch.  It is primarily a location for dawn photography.  The multi-point flare in the image above comes from stopping down the lens as it points into the rising sun.  There were maybe forty photographers there, competing for a place though very politely and cooperatively.  I have had to remove some unwanted cameras and tripods from the bottom of the image below.

.

A little later, another view through Mesa Arch.

.

Later, after breakfast, on our way to Delicate Arch, this is Ham Rock, probably taken from a moving vehicle.

.

Just near the carpark for the walk to Delicate Arch, on a short side trail, are these petroglyphs.

.

The walk to Delicate Arch takes an hour or two (one way).

.

.

.

There are a variety of impressive views along the way.

.

Not having quite reached it, I climbed up to view Delicate Arch from a natural rock window.

.

Here is the same view from a little further back, showing the window.

.

There were also some interesting views looking in the other direction.

.

.

.

So here we are at Delicate Arch.

.

There were about fifty photographers, mainly with tripods, stretched out in a large arc maybe thirty metres from the arch, waiting for the optimum light as the sun went down.  There was a humorous event when that started to happen.  Two young people dashed out in front of the rock for a selfie just as the light started to get good, though it may not last long.  A great roar ensued from all the photographers who had been patiently waiting for this moment for hours.  The young couple hastily ran back to whence they came.

.

In the other direction, looking towards the sunset.

.

A last look towards Delicate Arch at sunset.

.

A Park map, including Park Avenue, The Windows and Delicate Arch.

.