I got up at 4:45am on Friday morning to catch the sunrise in the Windows section of Arches National Park. Driving through Arches before the sun comes up is quite a surreal experience. I made it to the parking lot with plenty of time to spare, donned my hiking boots, gathered up my gear, and proceeded to trudge up the trail, coffee in hand, to the North Window.
It was quite windy and chilly up there and I was just slightly underdressed for the elements. I set up my tripod and camera and settled in for the wait. I had to keep a hand on my tripod at all times lest the wind carry it and my camera down the rocks.
Long story short, the sunrise was a complete bust. Due to the cloud cover, the sun never did bathe Turret Arch in a warm glow as I had hoped it would. Very disappointing, but these things happen.
After that I took a wee hike to Double O Arch:
The sun came out from behind the clouds for just a moment and illuminated this rock formation that’s adjacent to Double Arch (not sure what it’s called):
I took a whole lot more photos as I drove around the rest of the park, but none of them are salvagable due to the lousy light conditions. 
And I couldn’t quite bring myself to get up at 4:45 the following two mornings, so I’ll just have to get my fabulous Arches sunrise images on my next trip to the Moab area.
