In June of 2017 my wife and I took a trip that was a big loop through central California, taking in several national parks and other scenic locations. However, there were a number of things that we could not do because some roads were still closed from the previous winter's snow. We decided to go back in the fall of the following year to pick up the things that we had missed, and to see some new ones.

One of those new places was Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. I had found a guide on the better locations for photography there, and we spent several days visiting them. One of the spots was called Triple Arch. The guide gave directions for finding it, which involved locating a particular landmark in the distance from a parking area, followed by a kilometer hike and some additional navigation. On our first attempt, we just didn't find it.

When some other spots did not take as much time as expected, we planned to try for the arch again on the last morning. I made a different identification of the landmark, and this time we found it. The second attempt also gave us an opportunity to start earlier in the morning, so the sun was lower in the sky.