Lens choice for arches national park

nvsravank

Canon Rumors Premium
Feb 2, 2012
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I am planning to be at the arches national park this June. I don't hike much and so planning to take the minimum of equipment. I don't have a light kit and so have some hard decisions to do on the lens choices.

I want to take my primes and have 135, 100macro, 85, 50, 35 but I feel that is too heavy especially since I will be taking my 1dx.

I also feel that I want a wide angle for the night skies. My first time and so not really going for tracking kit if you will. Just some basic tries.

I was thinking of cutting down by going with 135, 35 and maybe get a new 17mm tilt shift.
Or Willa 135, 50 nad 35 do the trick?
 
I was in Arches back in 2012, and took 174 shots.
I looked at my exif data, which says:
17-40mm: 10 shots
24-70mm: 115 shots
70-200mm: 37 shots
70-200mm+1.4x: 12 shots

I have 3 shots in the focal range of 71-199mm, so you're either fairly close, or very far away.
There are many arches that are within a short hike from the parking lots, so you should be fine.
The one that this doesn't apply to is Delicate Arch. If you take the short hike (like I did) to the viewpoint, you need 400+mm to get a close shot, otherwise, you gotta take a 1.5mile hike. See the NPS's excellent website for guidance.
 
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Roads close Sunday through Thursday nights at 7 pm.
Crews are working on park roads at night through Nov. 30, 2017. Roads close at 7 pm Sunday through Thursday; last entrance is 6:30 pm and you must be out of the park by 7 pm on those nights. Roads reopen at 7 am. The campground is closed through November.

https://www.nps.gov/arch/planyourvisit/construction.htm

I lived in Moab for 15 years and only recently left (now back in W. Colorado only a couple of hours away), but still go over there frequently (the place is now a zoo). I spent almost all day every day of that time exploring and photographing.

When I would go to Arches (not any more, too crowded), I shot primarily with my 70-200 telly, as you're highly discouraged from getting off the road on foot unless on a trail. Be aware of the road closures above, esp. if you're wanting to do night shots. Second, take the Klondike Bluffs road for fewer people and some lesser-shot landscape possibilities. If you want spectacular, go out to Deadhorse State Park or the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands (skip Mesa Arch unless you like jostling for position). There are lots of places around Moab you can go w/o the crowds, though Arches is nice once or twice. I'll spare you the stories of the good old days there, but it used to be a great place to live. Winters there are still nice, though.

I wouldn't see much use for the TS unless you plan to get out under some of the arches and rocks, which is discouraged any more because of the huge numbers of people stomping everything. But...take a drive down Kane Creek or the Potash Road and you can get up close to some awesome cliffs for such and also some nice landscapes. Wallstreet (on Potash Road) is where the climbers are and it's good for shooting next to your car. Jughandle Arch down the Potash Road would be fun with a TS. Also, south of town is Ken's Lake and you can do some nice night shots there with a waterfall, just go out there and you'll see the spot. There's tons of nice stuff not in Arches, so don't focus just on that or you'll miss out bigtime. Go visit the Tom Till Gallery downtown.

Most of the wildflowers are gone by June so the macro might not be highly used, unless you want to shoot lizards. If it were me, I'd take a good telephoto and leave the macro and TS and some of the primes.
 
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