Today, we got up before the sun. Way before the sun. We had to reach our destination early enough so we could fine-tune our location to shoot moonset at sunrise. The moon would set just a few minutes after sunrise, so there was only going to be a few minutes when the ambient light matched the luminance of the moon. We tried shooting the moonset before sunrise, but the moon was so bright in comparison to the foreground that the moon was totally burned out. Only the last twenty minutes after the sun lit the sandstone ridge really worked well.
After sunrise, we drove up to Rainbow Vista to shoot panoramas while we still had the morning lighting. Rainbow Vista turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Because the area is so vast, the panoramas don't begin to show the details that make it such an amazing area. Valley of Fire is a very small park compared to most we visit. You can easily hit all the main attractions and overlooks in a couple of hours and be back on your way to Las Vegas or Zion. What sets Valley of Fire apart is that once you park your car and start walking into the different areas of the park, you are overwhelmed with all there is to see. It is a park filled with details that completely amaze you at every turn. Parks like Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Glacier overwhelm you with the granduer of their massive formations and features. Valley of Fire overwhelms you with the macro features. The rock textures, arches, windows, and shapes force you to slow down and take a good look around you to appreciate the unique beauty that is Valley of Fire. No matter how many times you visit an area, there will always be new features to discover.
Our final stop for the morning was Elephant Rock
, one of
the most-famous features of the park. It stands right next to the road on a low ridge dividing two valleys. Because of its orientation, it can be
a morning shot if photographed from the road side or an afternoon shot by climbing up through the arch and photographing it from the back side.
We spent the heat-of-the-day in camp. Today was the first day it's felt uncomfortably warm. The temperature was only in the 80's, but it felt much warmer. We were content to download our images, eat lunch, and take an afternoon nap.
When it began to cool down, I decided to see if I could find the four arches just south of Elephant Rock. They are scattered around the ridges that can be seen in the distance from Elephant Rock. I had the GPS coordinates, so I figured it would be fairly easy to find all four of them in the two hours before sunset. I couldn't have been more wrong. I parked along the road to try to shorten the hike out to the arches, but that also made any directions I had useless. After about an hour, I finally found Little Mosquito Arch. The GPS had serious issues with its compass features. I don't know if there are iron minerals in the sandstone concretions that throw it off, but it would vary 180 degrees within a few seconds of each other. I finally had to limit its use to the map feature which helped with the direction, but didn't tell me what side of a ridge the arch might be on. I finally found Little Mosquito Arch more by elimination rather than hiking right up to it. Little Mosquito was one of the coolest-shaped arches so far. While I was setting up my tripod, the sun set behind the ridge, and the arch was thrown into shade. I couldn't believe it. After searching for an hour, the light was lost in the minute or two it took me to find the right shot and set up. The shot was lost for today. Even though I couldn't shoot Little Mosquito Arch, I wandered around the area. It may be the best area I've seen so far. Right behind Little Mosquito Arch was a small valley surrounded by ridges that were filled with arches, windows, and interesting features. I'm definitely going to get an earlier start and re-visit this area later in the trip. It turned out that today was only a scouting trip. I still have 3 more arches to find in the area.
Tonight during our meatloaf dinner, we looked out the front of the motorhome to see the Harvest Moon rise right in front of us. It was the orangest moon I've ever seen. We had quite a dinner floor show.
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