For me, if it's early March, it must be time to head for Spring Training. I've been attending for years. This season was no different, except I drove to the desert southwest rather than fly. Though a long trek, traveling by car would make it logistically easier to get from Phoenix to Indian Wells, California for the BNP Paribas Open....the second stop on my spring sports tour.

I'd no sooner arrived in Arizona than the tennis tournament was cancelled due to you-know-what. (I did manage to see three baseball games.)

What to do?

Since I'd planned to stop briefly at Joshua Tree National Park on the way to Palm Springs, and because I was going to be shooting at the Open, I had all of my camera gear with me. I'd still have to make the long drive back north through Utah to get home. Hmmm. Southern Utah = parks. I began to hear Arches calling...

Though I didn't exactly have the clothing I'd want for an early March shoot in the Colorado Plateau, I wasn't caught completely flat-footed. It was still cold in Idaho when I left; a few winter-ish items had been tossed into the car, like my leather jacket. That said, I didn't have my hiking boots, serious cold-weather gear, or a waterproof jacket. I'd have to make do - just as I'd have to make the best of the forecast since this was going to be a short shoot.

A huge area of low pressure had moved into the southwest earlier in the week and was scheduled to remain for the duration of my visit. Worst case, the park would be socked in. Best cast, the unsettled weather might create something interesting.

Along the way, a hooded sweatshirt and inexpensive poncho were acquired. Not ideal, but helpful. Because I've worked at Arches previously, I knew what would be possible given the limitations both in terms of gear (i.e. hiking up to Delicate Arch wasn't going to happen without those boots) and the forecast, and mapped out a rough plan for the next two days.

While it did rain off and on the entire time - sometimes heavily - and temperatures dipped below freezing, conditions were quickly changeable. Flat skies periodically materialized, but didn't persist.

Though completely spur-of-the-moment and brief, the improvisational stop in Utah was successful.