The North Window, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

In Part 1 of the armchair guide to Arches National Park, I left you at the dirt road across from the Balanced Rock parking lot.  For Part 2, it’s time to move onward up the park’s road for more neat stops and wonderful photos.  As with the previous Glacier National Park armchair guide, I’ve geared this guide to Arches National Park for those who cannot or do not wish to hike longer/steeper distances and are happy to capture stunning images from view areas, parking lots, pullouts and short jaunts along parts of established hiking trails.  This is not a comprehensive guide to all of the stops in the park.  There are a number of other pullouts and parking areas at which I simply didn’t stop, so keep that in mind as you read through this and wonder, for example, why you don’t see any photos for the Garden of Eden view area on the way to The Windows Section.

Hey, I didn’t mention this in Part 1, but I’m certainly doing it here:  no matter what time of year or season you visit this park, make sure you have PLENTY of water with you.  The dry, hot parts of the year in this park will suck the moisture right out of you. And the dry cool parts of the year do the same, only it may not feel as drastic (although it is).  Stay hydrated and drink up (water, that is) so that you can enjoy long days in Arches National Park with your camera.  And STAY ON THE TRAIL where you can.  The soil and biology out there is fragile (even if it only looks like dust and sand), and it is incumbent on all of us to keep this place as pristine as we can for our next visit and for the next visitors.

North and South Windows, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

A view toward The Windows Section, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

The view from Double Arch, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Little cairn at the South Window, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Snow day at the North Window, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Snow day at Turret Arch, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stone steps to Turret Arch, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Evening sun through Turret Arch, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 8:  The Windows Section – This is definitely one of the easiest cluster of arches to approach.  You’ll see Double Arch, The North and South Windows, and Turret Arch.  All are within short, easy distances of the parking lot and all of them have nice trails with well-defined steps in places.  Of course, this is another extremely popular stopping place for tour buses, so time your visit either before 9AM or after 5PM for fewer people in your images.  Winter is a great time for a photographer to visit this area because the number of people within the park drops markedly.  I visited this section in February, and on that particular day counted a total of 9 people.  Of course, it had snowed 5-8 inches during the pre-dawn hours, which might also have had something to do with the low visitor count.

I utilized both my wide-angle lens as well as my telephoto lens for broad vistas in addition to close, intimate views. Think about including other portions of the scene in addition to one of the arches into your compositions.  Everybody gets straight shots of the arches, so you should jazz up your own images by thinking a little outside of the box to capture memorable photographs that will make you think not only of the arch itself, but also of the area around the arch.  This includes interesting trees, bushes, stairsteps, rocks (or boulders), how the sunlight angles through an arch or how the arch creates a natural frame around the distant land and interesting cloud formations.

Snow storm over Panorama Point, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Panorama Point hail storm, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 9:  Panorama Point –  From the Windows Section, head back out to the main road, turn right, and about 2.5 miles further north, you will see the paved turnoff to the right for Panorama Point.  As you drive around the paved circle, park first at the Panorama Point area with views back toward the Windows Section on your right, and the La Sal Mountains in front of and to your left. These are, indeed, panoramic swaths of landscape and depending upon the time of year, you might see a rain- or snow-storm in the distance, or you will notice how the sun reflects off of the slick snow-and-ice-covered surface of the rock formations.  Your wide-angle lens (anywhere from 11mm to 35mm) will come in handy to capture the broad expanse of scenery, but remember to try out your telephoto lens as well for landscape shots.  Use your circular polarizer to cut glare on the rocks and bring out the texture of any clouds present.  Try out your graduated neutral density (grad ND) filter to even out the lighting difference between the sky above and the land below the horizon line.  Grad ND filters are also great for intensifying textural differences within the clouds.

Salt Valley and Devil's Garden beyond, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Salt Valley from the other side, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 10:  Salt Valley – Once you’ve photographed the previous view to your heart's content, drive your vehicle around that paved circle towards the exit (or just walk to it) and park near the pictorial explanation of Salt Valley.  You’ll definitely want to use both a wide-angle lens to capture as much of the valley as you can, and a telephoto lens to zoom in on the colorful geology.

As you continue north, there will be another stop for a view of Salt Valley as seen from the other side of the valley.  Don’t forget to stop there, too, for a different vantage point.  Late afternoon and early evening is a wonderful time to capture this area as the sun begins its descent for the day.

Little visitor on the bridge along the Delicate Arch trail, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Precious water along the Delicate Arch trail, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 11:  The Trail To Delicate Arch – You may not want to hike the entire distance to get to this Utah icon, but you might want to walk the level portion of this trail since there are wonderful compositions (petroglyphs, wooden bridges, temporary ponds of water) just waiting for your camera to capture them.  If there is water under the bridge, affix your circular polarizer to eliminate as much surface glare as possible.

The view looking back toward the Devil's Garden Campground parking lot, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Red rock and green tree at the Devil's Garden Campground, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 12:  Devil's Garden Campground – During my February visit to this park, I found myself so tired one day, all I wanted to do was park the rental car at this campground, roll down the window a little to breathe in the fresh, crisp air and take a nap.  Instead, once I parked my car, I decided to get out and walk around a bit to see what my camera could photograph.  It’s not always about the wide landscape, you know.  Sometimes, it’s the more intimate scenes that merit attention.

Along the trail from Landscape Arch, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Cute little cairn at the Landscape Arch trailhead, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 13:   The Trail To Landscape Arch – The large parking lot beside the trailhead to Tunnel, Pine Tree and Landscape Arches (plus several other arches further up the trail) marks the literal end of the (paved) road.  No need to hike very far if you don’t feel like it.  Instead, walk just a bit of the trail to find both intimate and wide-angle scenes.   The trail itself makes a nice leading line toward the formations beyond.

The view from a slickrock perch, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

A La Sal Mountains evening, Arches National Park / Rebecca Latson

Stop 14:  Any Pullout On The Way Up To (or Back From) Devil's Garden Campground – As mentioned previously, there are a number of dirt pullouts alongside the paved main road.  I happened to find one pullout smack dab next to a large slickrock outcrop that I ultimately visited every day of my stay.  It was the perfect perch for a late afternoon / early evening photography session with the sun-gilded red rock and the snow-capped La Sal Mountains.  I actually made much use of my telephoto lens in this particular spot.  Telephoto lenses have an interesting habit of compressing the background so that the mountains look much closer than they really are (as demonstrated in the photo above).  A tripod, circular polarizer and grad ND filter were all absolute requirements.

This ends my armchair guide to Arches National Park.  These stops are just samplings of the areas you can reach with your camera.  As mentioned in Part 1, practically anywhere you stop presents a new photo op.  Use these stops and ideas to create your own armchair guide and add to what I’ve listed in this article. 

The road through Arches National Park geology / Rebecca Latson

Have fun!