Funnel Arch and Longbow Arch

We went to Moab to explore the area and do some photography exploration over a week-long period. We arrived late on Sunday and left early on Friday which gave us 4 full days of hiking in this beautiful area. The weather cooperated most mornings and a few evenings for golden hour photography, but we got a variety of lighting from overcast, snowing, foggy, and full sun. In total, we hiked a little over 30 miles and over a mile in elevation on this trip. We came to the same conclusion that our favorite type of hiking is the type where we're alone or hiking with very few people so that we can enjoy nature to the fullest extent, as well as get a perfect photo with no one in it.

Thursday was our last full day in Moab, and we weren't too sure if the weather would be permitting us to do very much because the forecast had light rain the entire day. Because of this, we decided to sleep in and start the day whenever we got up. We didn't leave the hotel until a little after 8 and even then we were pretty slow to get going. Our first stop of the day wasn't even to an arch, but instead to Faux Falls, a manmade waterfall that was created to divert some water. The falls were kinda cool, but the hike itself and the fact that it was manmade made it pretty boring, especially compared to all the cool natural features that we've been seeing all week.

Our second trip of the day was over to Funnel Arch which requires a pretty steep scramble to get to. When we go to the area that we had to climb up, there was a tour group coming back down that was using ropes to repel down the section that we climbed up and down with no problems. It was definitely more rock climbing than scrambling, but it was a fun experience and not terribly dangerous. When we got to Funnel Arch, we were the only ones there, which is our favorite type of destination hike. We shot some photos of the arch in both directions (definitely better shooting from the North looking South through the arch), and I decided to climb around the backside to get on top of the arch. Since this arch was in the BLM lands, there were no restrictions on climbing ontop, and in fact, this arch even had some clip-ins specifically for repelling down through the arch. It was a pretty steep slick rock face that was incredibly exposed to get to the top of the arch, but I made it up and back down without falling to my death. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done that without ropes, but that's a lesson learned for the next time we're in this area. Funnel Arch might be my favorite arch of this trip from a non-photography standpoint. The rock climbing and the great secluded views made it pretty awesome.

After taking a break in the middle of the day, the final destination of our trip was Longbow Arch. This one was also out in the middle of nowhere which meant once again, we'd get to hike alone. When we got to the arch there was a group leaving which left us the arch all to ourselves. We spent half an hour up there and on our way out, we passed a group of hikers heading to the arch and we were able to give them the same enjoyment that we had of being alone at the arch. Longbow arch isn't terribly photogenic since there's a wall of rick right behind it as well as the lack of great lighting (this arch faces North, so our overcast hike was probably the best lighting that this arch gets). It was a good hike and we were glad we did it, but it wasn't as spectacular as some of the other arches that we did yesterday (Corona Arch) or this morning (Funnel Arch).