John & Cheri's Adventure Blog: March 2012

Utah - Feb 2012 - Day 6 - NIGHT!!!

We finished the yummy dinner at the Blu Pig. We started with Catfish fingers and then ate BBQ. Highly recommended!! We stopped at the grocery store and bought two $1.99 flashlights and filled the gas tank.

By 7:30 the batteries were charged, the 32G cards were downloaded and free, our clothes were laid out, and we were headed for bed!

RING, RING, RING....OMG....it's 3 AM! OK - up we go....put on everything we own! Into the car and off to Arches! Even though we were very sleepy, the excitement was high! We zoomed up to the park and went to the first location we had scouted out. We stopped, set up the cameras and shot a few test shots.

After having our fill, we headed to the Windows. Oh what a place! This was it. This was the place that we would shoot!! We tried different settings and shot in RAW. Before we knew it the nautical dawn was here at 5:20 AM. We would love to hear what you think about these - so feel free to e-mail us!!

Enjoy!
John & Cheri

Utah - Feb 2012 - Day 7

The long day! We had decided to go up into Canyonlands National Park on this day. We stopped for breakfast at one of the diners in Moab. John had Fisher Rock french toast and that inspired us to find Fisher Rock (the black and white below). It was looking pretty positive that the skies would clear and treat us to our last possible opportunity to shoot the Milky Way!

On the way, we drove along Rt 128 and saw the Colorado river again!

Then we headed to Canyonlands. Not such and impressive park, but we shot some images anyway!

By now it was looking good for a clear night! Whooo hooo!! So we made the decision that we would not venture to Natural Bridges, but instead shoot at Arches. So, after driving through Canyonlands, we headed back to Arches to choose our night spots!

We explored the whole park; took test shots and distance checks along the way. Now it was time to go get some dinner at the Blu Pig (great BBQ) and plot the exact get up time! The moon was to set at 2:38 AM and the Milky Way to rise around 4 AM. So that decided it - 3 AM rise and shine!

Enjoy-

Cheri & John

Utah - Feb 2012 - Day 6

Before the trip began, the weather was supposed to be clear and sunny each day. So, we were planning to do some astro photography. Now, here we were on Day 6 and we had seen no clear nights. Undeterred we still hoped for the one clear night. We had read on the internet that one of the darkest skies in the US was in Natural Bridges; a Bortel Class 2 sky.

On this day, it was snowy and the weather called for an all day snow. Not to be deterred, we decided to drive through a blinding snow storm, for about 2 hours, to see Natural Bridges. From this reconnaissance, we would determine if we would drive 2 hours and 20 minutes on Friday night to shoot the Milky Way. At this time we still were not sure what time the Milky Way would rise.

As we neared Natural Bridges, remarkably, the sky was opening up. However, once we arrived there was a full squall in progress. About an inch of snow came down in a short space of time. Cheri looked around the visitor center. We decided to take a ride around the 9 mile loop even though it was snowing.

We struck off, and as we arrived at the first look out point, the skies started to clear!! Cheri hopped out of the car and started shooting. As we would continue around the loop the skies cleared to full blue! There were three arches in the park and we intended to see them all.

Cheri hiked down to Owachomo Bridge and shot this HDR image.

On the way out of the park, John shot the Bear's Ears.

As we neared the Visitor Center, we decided to stop in one more time and look at their Dark Sky information. This is when we met Gordon, the resident astronomer at Natural Bridges. He was a great guy who willingly shared his passion for astronomy with us. They had a "night sky" wheel on sale for $10.95. This handy little device shows when the Milky Way and the constellations rise each day and night. Armed with this and information about moon rise and set, we were able to plot a course for shooting the Milky Way, BUT only if the skies cooperated!!

We started the trek back as the skies closed in again! How lucky were we to have blue sky?! In Monticello we stopped for a pizza and chatted with the proprietor. She suggested we stop into the lower part of Canyonlands to see Newspaper Rock on the way back. So we did! The light along the way was perfect and the deer were all around!

Newspaper Rock was a place filled with Petroglyphs (see above). They think it has been here for around 2000 years!!

Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Cheri and John

Utah - Feb 2012 - Day 5

Alas, our time in Boulder was done and we were off to Moab. The weather was worsening, but never mind, we would continue to hope for the best. Our hope was to see Natural Bridges and Arches on this day. We filled the gas tank and headed off. The map showed there were three towns along the way: Hite, Fry Canyon, and Blanding. There should be gas and food along the way, right? Not so much!

Of course we were taking pictures along the way!

We finally came across this beautiful green river at the edge of Lake Powell. Could it be? It was the Colorado!!

What an epic journey it must be to see it from start to finish! We continued on expecting to get gas and food in Hite. Well, Hite was just a small summer town with no services at this time of the year. So - we calculated the amount of gas left in tank and held our breathes! We thought we could make it to Fry Canyon.
The snow squalls were back and the road desolate, but we keep moving forward. Fry Canyon was no bigger than Hite. Blanding was another 50 some miles ahead. A deep breath, and on we went. Along the way was Natural Bridges, but we decided that we were too tight on gas, so we didn't stop.

Finally, Blanding and on fumes! With a full gas tank it was time to find lunch! This was Navajo country and Indians were everywhere. We stopped for lunch in a local diner and Cheri had Navajo Tacos on Navajo fry bread. A local delicacy and boy was it yummy!

We then pressed on to Moab about 70 miles away and another 5 to Arches. The sun was shining and the Arches were gorgeous!!