Continued from Part 17:
Hiking back towards the trailhead from our visit to Saddle Arch, we stopped at the first arch. There is no apparent way to get close to this arch. We each picked our separate ways up the sandy bank near the canyon creek bed and over slick rock trying to get good vantage points from which to shoot the arch. My son, with much difficulty and slightly injuring an ankle, found a way to get beneath the arch. He advised me not to try advancing to his vantage point. I expect I could have, but not wanting to chance an injury, I took his advice, settling for shooting from a distance at several vantage points with my 24 to 70mm lens.
The zoom lens makes it look like I’m much closer to this arch than I actually am.
One of my Flickr contacts tells me this arch is labeled “Muley” arch in some hiking guides, although I do not recall the map showing a name for this one.
The best I could do from my vantage points is to try to show the setting of the arch. If these photos make it look like it would be easy to navigate to the area below and/or behind the arch, that is deceptive. The area around this arch is strewn with boulders and covered with much brushy growth.
That’s it for this shoot. There are arches at two locations along the road to the trailhead. We will stop on the way back to the Burr Trail Road to shoot those arches.
Ken