Today was a very good day. Most importantly, Congress didn't default on the debts that they had already authorized, so Wall Street didn't go into free fall. I have no idea what point the GOP was trying to make by shutting down the government, racking up billions of dollars of losses in the American economy, and hurting every American who had money in investments. It doesn't appear that they know why they were doing it either. In the end, they simply alienated more Americans from what used to be a valid political party.
Secondly, we have WiFi again and are connected to the world outside of Valley of Fire State Park. The connection is horribly slow, but at least we can get emails and the most critical news. Tomorrow, we are going to try to change campsites to an area that has better Internet access. Our site is tucked in near a rock outcropping, and we even have a hard time getting cell reception here.
This morning we explored the rock outcroppings on the opposite side of the ridge from our campground. With a GPS, we had no problem finding Arch Rock and
Piano Arch
.
Pagoda Arch was next on the list, but we never did find it. We found a very cool small arch high up on a ridge that looked like a pagoda, but we later learned
it was not the right one. During our search, we found countless arches of all sizes, sandstone caves, sandstone walls that looked like they had melted and
dripped down, and towers and parapets that looked like goblin condos from some sci-fi movie. Every new turn led to something new to see.
We finished our morning of wandering at Windstone Arch. This was made famous by a David Muench photograph many years ago. We missed the right lighting
and will have to return earlier in the morning next time. The shot works only if there is no direct light to ruin the soft pink lighting inside the arch. We did shoot a formation near Windstone that includes a "cave" with two arches, as shown below.
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We returned to camp,
downloaded our images, and had about two hours to relax before it was time to photograph moonrise at sunset.
Today, we found Fire Canyon Arch
and my favorite part of the park so far. Fire Canyon Arch looks like a viper's head with a single fang. It sits on the top of a ridge with swirls of light
and dark sandstone.
We were there just before sunset, and the lighting was nearly perfect on the arch. Most of sandstone near the arch is light tan with lots of small arches,
wind caves, delicate ridges, petrified sand pillows, and a view across Fire Canyon that is awesome. We photographed for over an hour before we even
started thinking about the moonrise.
The moon rose about 5:30 and for the next hour it was like we were the only people on earth. We had the entire area to ourselves. The only sounds came from an occasional raven flying over. As the sun set, the shadows crept across the formations below us toward Silica Dome. Finally, just as the shadows had nearly reached Silica Dome, the moon popped up from behind the dome. I'm not sure our images will do it justice, but it was a gorgeous sight. When it was time to leave, we continually found one more thing we wanted to photograph before it got too dark. Twenty minutes later, we finally had to force ourselves to leave this truly magical spot. Sunsets like tonight are one of the reasons I love to photograph in the West. For an hour, we escaped everything and were captivated by the scene around us.
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