Postcard from The Arches

The Journey Continues

The end of my journey around the Western United States was fast approaching. It was very late November…the weather is getting colder and snow was in the immediate forecast. It was about to the time I would have to head south to southern Arizona, and, more importantly, find a place to live and put down roots. And, Thanksgiving was just ahead. But, I wanted another day or two in The Arches before I left.

The Arches National Park is right up there among my favorite National Parks. I spent days wandering around from place to place and hiking on its many trails. There are over 2,000 arches inside the park, and although I couldn’t get to them all, I photographed many of them. In a few years, I would come back here and do more photography. But that was in the future.

For now, my goal was to enjoy my final days on the road and keep my shutter clicking away. Of course, every photographer knows that the best light of the day is almost always sunrise and sunset. So I would park myself in certain places at those times and hope I would get lucky with the light and the sky. Being at a great spot at sunset doesn’t always mean one will get a great shot.

However, on this one late afternoon, I got very luck with the light and the sky and got a great picture of Balanced Rock, as you can see from above. I had been at this very spot a couple of other evenings and got less-than-spectacular results. But this night offered an incredible sunset.  

On my final night, I got a hotel room in Moab to clean up and get a good nights rest before leaving for Yuma to spend Thanksgiving with my son. It was going to snow in Moab on Thanksgiving, so it was a fortuitist time to go. This year, Thanksgiving was late, on the 28th. I almost hated to leave, but it was time to find a new place to live and put down some roots. I have always had a place to call home, at least up until these months on the road. And I was feeling the need to get going on a new part of my life.

When I first started this trip, I had Tucson as my final destination. I visited the city very early in the year and liked what I saw. It felt good to me. But, I was always wide open for any other place I might find along the way. I never found one. I really liked St. George, Utah and thought about it. But I decided I would not feel comfortable in Utah. So, in the end, I stuck with my original choice.

It was a bittersweet journey from Moab to Yuma…a long drive, to say the least. I had a great time living out of my van and seeing all these new places. I had a lot of time to think and prepare for my new life as a single man in a whole new town. Frankly, I was excited about it…no fear at all. After all, I love seeing new places and Tucson was a new place to see and discover.

After Thanksgiving, I headed east towards Tucson. On my first day here, I found the almost perfect place for me to live and have been here for 6.5 years. But in three weeks, I will be moving to a new place. I am quite excited about it. I will not miss this place as the new management has driven me out. For 5.5 years, this was a great place to live. But now, all my old friends who took care of this place are gone…and the new people are slowly letting this place go to hell. But that is another story and I will happily leave this place in just a couple of weeks.

Anyway, when I found this place I was not allowed to move in for 2 weeks as they wanted that time to prepare it for me. So my life in the van was not quite over. For those two weeks, I lived in a very nice campground just off the Mt. Lemmon Highway. It was actually one of the best campgrounds I had on the whole trip. On most days, I would have coffee at my camp table, then head down the mountain to Eastern Tucson to eat breakfast and use the Internet. I also took the time to explore Tucson.

I thought sure when I came here I would find a place on the east side…but it turns out my new place was on the far west side of Tucson, up in the hills above the town. After living here a short time, I was glad I chose this side. Far fewer people and traffic up here. Lots of open space with walking trails in the desert and some great views. In fact my new place is only a couple of miles from here and is also located in the hills above the town. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Last week, I wrote about Canyonlands and offered you a Web page that featured my best photos from that National Park. This time, I am doing the same thing. I just posted a brand new page on my Website that offers the best photos from the Arches. I would be honored if you take a look at them and let me know what you think.