Fall 2009

This fall, Mike came to visit us from Ithaca. In addition to some great games of Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan, we had wonderful weather for hikes in Arches National Park, the Colorado National Monument, Rattlesnake Canyon, and the BLM land to the east of the Monument.

Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point

Our first hike was in Arches National Park. We hiked through the Devil's Garden section to Double O Arch. We then headed to Dead Horse Point for sunset, but missed it by 5 minutes.


A view of the sandstone fins from the trail.


Nancy, Casey, and Mike hanging out in an arch.


The view through that arch.


Nancy and Mike as we hiked along the top of one of the fins.


The top arch of Double O arch.


Nancy, Casey, and Mike at Double O arch. We traded pictures with some people we met at the arch. Unfortunately, we were in deep shadow, so we had to use a flash, which makes us look photoshopped in.


We got to Dead Horse Point just after sunset and did some long-exposure pictures. This one was 20 seconds, or so, I believe. The remaining glow from the sky where the sun had set provided a nice rosy fill.


As an experiment, I had Nancy walk behind Mike and pause for a few seconds in three places. The effect is kind of cool.

Rough Canyon and The Surface

We took the 4Runner down the Tabaguache trail and hiked up Rough Canyon and back, and then drove to the "Surface", a large flat slab of slanted sandstone where the Ribbon Trail starts.


Sadie, Nancy, and Mike in Rough Canyon with some nice fall foliage.


Mike, Casey, Nancy, and Sadie on the Surface with the Mesa in the background.


With the way the Surface is slanted, Nancy, Mike, and Sadie walking ahead of me were framed against fairly high-up sky. This is the red channel of a color photo used as a grayscale image (like having a red filter on black and white film), which turns the blue sky black for some nice drama


The clouds framing the shot aren't as good as in the previous photo, but Sadie's expression is better here.

Rattlesnake Canyon

Rattlesnake Canyon is much less well-known than Arches National Park, which makes visiting its arches seem more special. We've been there before, but it's worth going back.


The big arch at the end of the trail with Mike and Sadie right after we'd descended through the arch.


Mike looking back at our route after we'd climbed back up through the arch.


We stopped at a few viewpoints along Monument Canyon in the Colorado National Monument as we drove back from the hike.