Mesa Arch at sunrise, one of the most visited and most photographed places in Utah if not the world. Just Google it and you will see beautiful sun stars and landscapes through the 27-foot arch. No worries, we are not going out that early, too much sand in the air from the 24-hours of sandstorms across Utah. No sun stars today, but let’s not miss the arch, up close and personal in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park.
The hike is short, about .6 miles round-trip. We will walk up . . .
. . . then back down, but we can no longer see the arch. So which direction is it? That’s where the cairns (kerins) come in. Carins, when referring to navigation, are rock piles that let you know you are on the right hiking trail. They are most helpful on trails that are not beaten down by use, along a backcountry (remote) unmarked trail, and trails on rock like this one. The problem is many people just enjoy stacking rocks which can misdirect hikers. This can and has resulted in lost hikers needing search and rescue. Typically on backcountry hikes into true wilderness there is no cell service adding another challenge when needing help. Another words, as the Park Service tells us, DO NOT build cairns. Looks like Canyonlands solved the problem of random building and knocking down of cairns–they built super heavy rock carins!
Well, that’s about the best we’ll be seeing the sun today. Interesting that even with this lighting, the arch’s bottom is bright. With good light, it would turn bright orange.
The arch sits on the edge of the cliff, but the lighter rock just under it may reflect the light giving us a pretty orange base.
Yup, that’s on the edge! Sorry I could not get closer for a really good on-the-edge pic, but I don’t do heights well. Sigh . . .
So let’s see the view through the arch. What makes this arch so appealing for sunrise is you can get this picture any time of year. Change your angle a bit and success. For many locations only certain months allow such a sunrise view. Right now it is about 8am and the sun has been up since about 6:30, but a very different view for us thanks to blowing sand š . See how bright the arch’s base is even in this light.
I can’t leave you like this, the sand is beginning to drive me crazy, can you tell? So with a bit of editing “magic” you can see a bit more of the view east. You can even see the south end of the La Sal Mountains.
Until next time my friend . . .
