Moments before sunset, I stood a stone's throw away from what has become in many ways the symbol of Utah.
I was trying to shoot my own photo of Delicate Arch, that famous sandstone span featured on countless postcards, T-shirts and license plates.Sadly, the picture looked more like the replicated, inflatable arch at the Nagano Olympic closing ceremonies than the brilliant symbol of Utah's deserts.
The arch itself was a warm red glow framing the distant La Sal mountains against a deepening blue sky. But the crowds joining me in my moment of "desert solitude" -- including the throngs who walked between the formation's bowlegged cowboy legs and into my picture, along with their camera flashes all around -- conjured images of Mayor Corradini waving to the thousands in Japan's Olympics arena and the millions watching on television.
My experience was ruined.
The National Park Service reported 858,525 visitors to Arches National Parks in 1997. It isn't a mystery why it's so difficult to find a sunset of solitude, but there may be a way to steal some time alone, and it is all a matter of timing.
Murray Shoemaker, a park ranger at Arches, is among those who know about the fantastic perks to visiting Moab and the wealth of surrounding parks and scenic wonders in the off-season.
"We get a lot fewer people this time of year," he said. "You get days in August when we get 3,000 people a day in the visitor's center. Yesterday (Jan. 21) we had 145."
Spread those 145 wintertime visitors over the park's almost 80,000 acres and 12 hours of daylight, and it's easy to see that summer is the wrong time to have a wilderness experience in the desert.
"I see people coming in, and they are surprised and delighted at the wintertime. Then they plan around it," Shoemaker said. "They have figured it out."
Arches is a scant two miles from town and therefore gets the highest visitation, but roughly 20 miles away are the unmatched overlook scenics of Dead Horse Point, and the Island In The Sky district of Canyonlands. Farther south is the Needles district of Canyonlands. The farther you drive or walk, the greater your chances of being alone.
While it isn't exactly tank-top weather in the off-season, it isn't freezing either, at least not all the time. An Internet site www.moab-utah.com lists January as the coldest month of the year and records average highs in the low 40s.
Dale Cope with the city's Chamber of Commerce wants people to know that the town and the unique sights around it don't go away when most of the tourists do.
"Today I am able to walk outside with a long-sleeve shirt on and be comfortable," he said last week over the phone while snow fell in Salt Lake City. "It is the middle of winter."
Cope and a lot of others who make their living on tourist dollars would like to change the way the seasons affect business.
"We are a seasonal town basically," he said. "The Chamber (of Commerce) is trying to change that."
This December featured the first of what is planned as an annual electric light parade, and Cope called it "a big success." The winter calendar is dotted with things like rodeo events, a chocolate-lovers fling, dances and wilderness lectures.
"There is always something going on in Moab," he said.
Marian DeLay, executive director of the Utah Travel Council, has a whole list of reasons to visit the area in the winter.
"It is an ideal time right now for hiking," she said. "Four-wheeling is a nice challenge now, and you are inside (the vehicle) anyway. It is just as fun as any other month but has far less people than other times. Some years snowshoers love the La Sals."
As for that sunset everybody seems to be looking for, chances are good that it would be just as beautiful -- or more so -- during winter months.
"The winter sunrises and sunsets are absolutely beautiful. Usually (in the summer) you have these bright yellow sunrises. Yesterday, we had just enough clouds to make it a wonderful soft pink," DeLay said.
On a three-day trip to the region in late October, I was lucky enough to see a rainstorm cause the red rock canyons lining the Colorado River to belch forth scores of spontaneous waterfalls, some hundreds of feet tall. The following day I caught a spectacular pair of complete rainbows in the deserts of Arches.
On the third day, atop the Island In the Sky plateau, I was virtually alone, and sometimes as I peered off cliffs that fell thousands of feet to canyons carved by the diligent Colorado, I felt as if I could march out atop the clouds. Bringing my coat and a hat was a small price to pay for the matchless experience.
"I think it (the off-season) is still a little bit of a secret," DeLay said.
It is enough of a secret that hotels, according to Cope, have winter rates, some charging only half as much as during the busy season.
Patrick Farley, general manager of the Gonzo Inn, offers discounted winter rates and is doing what he can to pull in new clients.
"We are trying to market the slower season to people in Salt Lake, Denver, Park City and Boulder (Colorado). It has really paid off," he said. "People come here because they know the rates are lower, and they know crowds aren't here."
"The restaurant owners all go to Mexico or someplace," he said.
While some establishments remain open, it is true that some business owners plan their well-deserved vacations for the slow season.
Another low-price option for accommodations is camping inside the parks in spots that are hard to get during the peak season.
"It is fairly difficult in the summer," Shoemaker said. "In the wintertime it is no problem. The water is shut off, so there are no flush toilets, but it is very easy to get a site."