Went from Arches to Colorado National Monument yesterday. I had mistakenly thought this was Memorial Day weekend when I was planning the trip (partly because my Outlook calendar said it was) and made reservations for 2 nights at Colorado River State Park. I also mistakenly picked the wrong one of the two parks, and the one I picked was farther from the monument and closer to I70.

I went up into the monument in the afternoon after setting up camp and got a few shots before a storm chased me down. The winds were blowing in excess of 40mph accorning to the ranger and with the clouds and rain picture taking wasn't that productive, although I did get a panorama of the storm on its way as well as a couple of others before the light went bad. I went back to camp and listened to the gentle sounds of semis and screaming children until it was time to go to bed. It turned out that the traffic noises were nothing compared to the sound of the train that came by just after midnight, rumbling and banging so hard it shook the trailer. The next few trains weren't as loud, but still made for an eventful night. I decided to bail on my 2nd night in the park and did one more drive through of the Colorado National Monument before heading back to Moab.

I mooched some WiFi from the library and cashed in some rewards points for a Comfort Inn room in Blanding - being badly in need of a shower anyway. I stopped by the Needles Overlook part of Canyonlands and took a few shots, but while the views there are impressive it's really to vast to photograph well, at least at my skill level. It feels good to have had a hot shower, though, even if a lot of my 'tan' washed off. ;-)

Tomorrow I have to decide of where to stop on the way to my reservations at the south rim for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Went for a hike out to Broken Arch yesterday afternoon after a late lunch. I enjoy the loop trail that starts from the campground and goes through some fins on the way out, and past another arch and a cactus field on the way back. Last year the catus were in full bloom, but this year there were only a few flowers.

After that I had a salad I made up at the salad bar at the City Market in Moab and then decided to drive out to Fisher Towers along the Colorado River north of towm to see if I could get some sunset color. There were clouds in the west that prevented any real sunset light, but the sun did peek through for a few minutes about a half an hour before sunset so I got a few nice shots of the formation.

This morning I hiked up the Park Avenue trail a little ways before running into a busload of tourists on the way down. Judging from the lead group I didn't want to get caught up in the main herd, so I headed on back down. I came into Moab to the library to look at some photos and then I'll be hading for Grand Junction to visit the Colorado National Monument for a couple of days. I've never been there so it should be interesting.

Yesterday I drove around up the road to Potash a bit after leaving the Moab library, photographing some of the petroglyph panels that were high up enough they haven't been vandalized yet, and then hiked out to Tower Arch in the afternoon.

It's about 3 1/2 miles round trip and I spent about 3 hours walking and taking pictures, incuding some from inside the arch and some of a formation called The Marching Men nearby. Ialso had some nice views of Skyline Arch on the drive back from the Tower Arch Trailhead in Klondike Bluffs.

I went back to camp intending to grill some brauts and realized I hadn't put the grill together after we bought it at a grocery store back home last year. After the some assembly required bit I did grill the brauts and they were everything I had dreamt they would be. A storm was moving in but I decide to go back to a place by Balanced Rock I had scouted earlier in the day and set up to try for a sunset shot. It was blowing and spitting rain and the western sky was covered in cluds, but just at sunset the sun peeked through and lit up the rock for what is probably the best Arches photo I've ever taken.

Got back to camp nicely tired when up pulled an RV with a couple of kids who apparently eat a steady diet of pixy sticks washed down with Red Bull and have deaf parents. They screamed and ran around until 10 or so when their parents finally collected them for a sing along.

I went to the Windows section this morning to ckeck out the spot when folks take pictures of Turret Arch through the North Window. I climbed up through the arch but concluded the rock I would need to climb to compose the shot was high enough that, if I were able to get up, I probably couldn't get down - but I took a shot of Turret Arch anyway. I then drove along to Colorado River to check out Fisher Towers for a potential sunset shot tonight.

It was a nice night camping at Arches even though I was fairly close to a group site full of high school students who liked to simg as they walked back and forth past my site to the restroom - over and over again.

I tried for a sunset shot at Firey Furnace but didn't get much color in the sky. I had better luck with some panos I shot at the Garden of Eden viewpoint earlier in the evening.

Did a few sunrise shots this morning without much luck and then came into Moab to do laundry and check on things at the library. Going for a hike or two this afternoon on this bright sunny day.

It was another windy, stormy evening yesterday, but this morning it was clear and calm. I tried for some sunset photos at the Green River Overlook, where I've never had much luck, and again it wasn't that great. There was a big storm in the west and when the sun finally did drop below it it was too low to light up the canyon. It did give some very weird light on the cliff walls to the east of the canyon, but only for less than a minute. The light looking due west was stunning, but, natuarraly, I was in the wrong place to get and images - I should have been down by the false kiva trail or farther up the road towards Grand View Point.

This morning I went to Dead Horse Point at sunrise for my traditional panorama shot as well as a few single shot captures, then I packed up and moved camp over to Arches. It is a zoo there with all the traffic, especially around the Devils Garden Trailhead near the campground.

It's been mostly sunny today but with some nice clouds. I'm about to go back to Canyonlands and see what I can find for late afternoon/evening shots. Here is one from this morning at the Green River Overlook in Canyonlands.

I also have to put in a plug for the Grand County Library in Moab. It is an excellent facility and is open from 9am to 8pm weekdays, and has free WiFi to boot.

I'm in Moab, currently camping at Dead Horse Point State Park. They have a very nice library in Moab where I am now trying to add a few blog entries and look at some of the photos I have taken. Here are a couple from Dead Horse Point yesterday evening when the sun popped through between storms.

While at Goblin Valley a few storms rolled through and made for some interesting lighting when the sun peeked between the clouds from time to time. I wasn't able to get any shots of the numerous lighting bolts, but here's on eof the Three Kings lit up against at stormy background.

On the way from Bryce to Moab I stopped for the night at Goblin Valley, which allowed me time to drive therough Capitol Reef. Here's a shot of the Toyota and Trailer in the same spot as one of the last photos I took of the Defender and Fargo before they were totalled almost exactly two years before.

While at Bryce I visited Kodachrome Basin State Park. The weather was OK there and the clouds made for some interesting shooting, even in the afternoon light. Here's a couple of shots of the weird rock chimney formations they have there.

Finally a little sunshine, just as I am leaving Bryce. Visited Cedar Breaks and Kodachrome SP yesterday and took a lot of shots but the light wasn't the best. I'll have a lot to go through when I get home. Here's a couple from Bryce, one yesterday afternoon and one this morning.

Here's the 'standard' shot of the Watchman and the Virgin River, except it was cloudy and the setting sun didn't light up the rocks like I would have liked. Oh well, another reason to come back. It's overcast this morning and it's cold where I'm heading - temp was 45 at Bryce last I checked. Lots of folks out and about today, I doubt solitute is an option this weekend. ;-)

Here's some from Zion. Supposed to have thunderstorms the next few days, which could make for some interesting photo ops. I move from Zion to Bryce tomorrow. All this time I thought Memorial Day weekend was a week later than it apparently is - getting crowded out here.

Just a quick shot from the highway and an old barn in Grafton, UT, where some of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed..

Here's a picture of Owens Creek Falls on the Natchez Trace. The water table has dropped over the years and now there is barely a trickle of water except after a heavy rain. I have since learned that there is supposedly another, prettier, falls a little farther down the trail, but I didn't know that when I was there so I will have to wait for my next visit to check it out.

Checked out the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale - very cool if you like a little blues history - and then drove on over to Arkansas. Tomorrow I head for Tulsa and a wedding and then on west to the 'real' part of the trip. ;-)

At any rate, here's some more photos from the Natchez Trace Parkway.

When the Trace was busy with folks traveling back from Natchez to Nashville after moving cargo down river, there were a number of inns, or stands as they were called, along the way. Virtually nothing remains of the structures except for the headstones in the graveyards near them.

It's also interesting to see the Natchez area referred to as the southwest, but in its heyday that is what it in fact was.

Drove to Natchez Tuesday and then on to Clarksdale today (Wednesday). Towards Natchez there were a lot of downed trees from the last storms, up on the delta there is water everwhere. My favorite parts of the Natchez Trace that I drove (Natchez to just north of Jackson) were the parts of the old trace you could walk on that had been wond down 10-15 feet by all the foot traffic, and the Tupelo bald cypress swamp. Going to try and review some of the photos I took and see if there are any worth posting, but here's one of the Natchez Trace and one of the Tupelo Cypress Swamp.

Tomorrow I'm going to vistit the Delta Blues Museum here and then wander on over to Van Buren, AR for tomorrow night.

Up early to head out. Going to drive to Natchez and camp near there tonight and then drive the Trace north towards Tupelo before swinging over to Clarksdale. Looks like I'll run into some rain, hopefully not too bad.

Well, got a call that Great River Road SP in MS is being closed for the night I was going to camp there (Wednesday) due to flooding. It's inside the Mississippi River levee near Rosedale and I was looking forward to some river vistas, but I guess the river is going to be in the park instead. ;-) I'm going to stay in a Comfort Inn in Clarksdale instead so I can still get a dose of Delta Blues. I checked with Natchez SP where I'm planning on camping tomorrow night (Tuesday) and they said they should be OK.

So, I'm getting ready to head out on my 1st real photo trip of this year - mostly southern Utah and Wyoming. I'm planning on a short detour to check out the Natchez Trace on the way, but with all the rain they have been getting and the Mississippi flooding I'm not sure. I want to stop by Rosedale and Clarksdale for a delta blues fix, too, but the Great River Road SP by Rosedale may be under water Wednesday when I plan on camping there, so I'll give the parks a call tommorrow to see what the score is.