dust and starlightUtah
Arches and Canyonlands
Arches and Canyonlands national parks and the canyon country near Moab: the Milky Way over Turret Arch, Mesa Arch and the White Rim below Island in the Sky, and the Green River below Deadman Point from the drone.
Part of Utah National Parks and Red Rock Country, with the map of all 4 of its regions.
2 places · 9 photos
Map of Arches and Canyonlands
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9 photos
Field notes
When to go
Our frames here are from a July night in 2024 in Arches, with the Milky Way core over Turret Arch; an April day in 2025, with snow still on the La Sal Mountains; a January afternoon in 2026, the La Sals snowy again beyond Long Canyon; and Labor Day weekend 2026 on the White Rim Road, when the core was still up after dark but setting early, and the monsoon had arrived. Expect heat even after dark in July, and in September be set up before astronomical dark, not at it.
Getting there
As of 2026 Arches has done away with timed entry and is open 24 hours a day; entry is $30 per vehicle. Canyonlands charges its own entrance fee, and every trip on the White Rim Road below Island in the Sky needs a park permit on top of it: overnight camping permits through Recreation.gov, day-use permits online or at the visitor center. You need a high-clearance 4WD with low range. Deadman Point is just north of Canyonlands, and Long Canyon is near Moab.
Our story
Our first frame here was made a few minutes after midnight on a July night in 2024, in the Windows Section of Arches: a dead juniper, the Milky Way core, and Turret Arch on the skyline. The park's Dark Sky designation is what got us out there after dark.
In April 2025 we flew the drone over the Green River where it bends below Deadman Point, then went on to Mesa Arch in the afternoon, when the arch sits in its own shadow and frames the canyon country below Island in the Sky. In January 2026 the drone found a car on the switchbacks at the head of Long Canyon, with the snowy La Sal Mountains beyond.
Labor Day weekend 2026 was our first night on the White Rim Road, camped at Candlestick. We shot the Milky Way standing straight up over the rim until one in the morning, and at sunrise we got about three minutes of color behind Candlestick Tower before the monsoon clouds closed in.