Canyonlands National Park

Green River Canyon
Colorado River Canyon

Shafer Trail Road
4x4 Road in the Canyon

Yesterday we drove to Canyonlands National Park whose geology was created by the Green and Colorado Rivers which have their confluence in the park. This area was explored by John Wesley Powell who started his trip through the canyons on the Green River in Wyoming. The rivers divide the park into three separate areas The Needles, The Maze and Island in the Sky, the only part we visited. In this section you drive across the Colorado Plateau and look down into canyons ranging from 1000 to 2000 feet deep. There are many miles of hiking trails and 100's of miles of dirt roads that are old uranium mining roads that are open to 4x4s. One of the dirt roads leads to Thelma and Louise Point where the final scene of the movie was shot. In The Maze section there are no paved roads. This is the fifth national park we have toured in Utah. Each one has a very distinct geology and they are all beautiful. We both agree "Utah Rocks" are wonderful and if you ever get a chance, it is a great place to visit.

Arches National Park

Delicate Arch is on the Utah license plate.
Double Arch

Atop a Rock Fin
Landscape Arch is the largest in the park at 306'. A 180 ton section fell from it in 1991.
Balance Rock
Leaping Toad
Lizard
Squirrel drinking at a pothole.
Blooming Desert

We spent a couple days hiking in Arches National Park where there are over 2000 arches within the park from a minimum of three feet to over 300 feet. This concentration of arches is the result of the different geology of the area which once had huge salt deposits that dissolved causing the land above to collapse creating rock fins. The make up of the stone in the fins causes the lower layers to erode before the upper layers which creates an arch. In Geological time they do not last very long, only a few thousand years and new arches continue to form today even as old ones collapse. We have also seen many more flowers and animals than we thought we would in this dry hot climate.

Moab

Irrigated Fields and Badlands
View out the front window
You may have seen this in the movies.
The Muddy Colorado
In the high country

We are now in Moab, Utah at the Moab Rim Campark and we have moved quickly from Spring to Summer with temperatures in the high 90's even as we look at snow capped mountains. The drive here took us through another different looking landscape with dry badlands and green irrigated fields. On the drive we also had our first $500+ fillup with fuel costing $4.50 a gallon, $.50 more than we paid three weeks ago. I hope this "appeases" the Middle East oil producers. Moab is a big outdoorsy town with a lot of tourist activities and many businesses to serve them, including the first real grocery store we have seen in Utah. There are trips on the Colorado River, more jeeps than we have ever seen in one place for 4x4ing and it is a great bicycling area. There are also two national parks, a state park and more of that big wide open Western scenery. We took a 30 mile bike ride along the banks of the Colorado which was very muddy, not clear like it was below the Glen Canyon Dam. We drove into the mountains to enjoy the scenery and escape the heat with temperatures being 20 degrees cooler in the high country. When eating out one night we ran into Utah's unusual liquor laws. While waiting for a table at the Moab Brewery I had a beer but Nanc could not drink a glass of wine at the bar. She had to wait until we were seated in the dining room less than five feet away. There really aren't any bars in Utah, you must be eating to have a drink. Though there is some humor about booze in Utah, a local brewery makes Polygamy Porter and the label reads "Why just have one" and "Bring some home for the wives."

More Awesome Views

Snow Covered Mountains
Capitol Dome
Nanc standing on Cassidy Arch
The Castle
Capitol Gorge Waterpocket Fold
Orchards in Fruita along the Fremont River.

Gifford Farmhouse in Fruita

We are now at the Thousand Trails RV Park in Torrey, Utah near Capitol Reef National Park. This campground offers a couple of unique services with a nightly dinner in the pavilion and the sale of homemade bread baked by a local man in an outdoor brick oven. We took advantage of both. After we set a personal record of not dining out for eleven days in a row we found a great restaurant in tiny Torrey, Cafe Diablo, where we had a wonderful gourmet meal. On the drive here we crossed a pass at nearly 8400 feet and drove through some snow. During the first day we watched it snow in the high mountains overlooking the valley. While it did not snow in the campground it was ten degrees cooler there then it was in Capitol Reef which is at 5400 feet in elevation. I said earlier that we have been following Spring weather and it really shows here with the trees in the park having all their leaves while in Torrey the leaves on many trees are not yet out. The name Capitol Reef comes from the reef like Waterpocket Fold, a 100 mile wrinkle in the Earth's crust, that runs through the park and the large domes that reminded early settlers of the US Capitol Building. The erosion of the fold has created spectacular colorful cliffs and rock formations which can be seen on a ten mile drive or by the many hiking trails. Also preserved in the park is the Mormon settlement of Fruita where they planted orchards along the Fremont River. The orchards are still maintained by the park service and when the fruit ripens anyone is allowed to pick it. This park, while one of the least visited, offers a great variety of things to see and do.

Hoodoos

Bryce Amphitheater
Rock Window
Hoodoos
Climbing out of the canyon
Stellar Jay
Pronghorns
Beggin Raven
After a Winter of not seeing any snow for the first time in our lives we had to walk through it on the Bristlecone Trail.
Effects of Erosion

We are now in the North Campground at Bryce Canyon National Park. The four days here will be the longest we have camped without hook ups. We are being very conservative with water and electricity and run the generator each day to charge the batteries. Bryce is different from Zion in that the road is along the plateau rim and you are looking down into the canyon. In the meadows and forests along the rim we saw many different animals. We drove and biked along the 18 mile road which has a number of scenic stops. We also hiked down into the canyon which is the best way to see the eroded formations. Bryce is also much higher in elevation with some snow still on the ground and low temps in the 30's. Bryce has one of the most unique landscapes we have ever seen with the erosion of the rocks forming hoodoos rather than one large canyon. The climate of Bryce has a huge impact on the formation of hoodoos with over 200 days each year of below freezing temperatures. If you want to see Bryce you need to do it soon because at the present rate of erosion it will be gone in 3 million years. If one picture is worth a thousand words we have about a million words in our camera. Starting with this entry we are going to try and have links to the sites we visit and write about. If you click on the underlined word(s) it will give you more info.

More Zion

This is the road we cycled up to the tunnel. There are six switchbacks ending at the canyon wall at the left.
The Virgin River coming out of The Narrows.
Rock climber at 1200 feet above the canyon floor. It had taken him five days to get to this point. You can see his bag on the ledge where he slept on a 6 x 6 platform he hung from the wall.
Movie set used for Gunsmoke and other Westerns. The gallows is on the right and the saloon is the last building in the row.

On our last couple of days in the Zion area we did more hiking, biking and took a long drive in the wilderness. Our bike ride included a 3.5 mile uphill ride to the tunnel. Going uphill in the West really is easier than in Western PA because they have switchbacks to reduce the grade. Going down as usual was much more fun. One hike was along the Virgin River to The Narrows where it flows into Zion Canyon. When the water is lower (and warmer) you can hike in the river through The Narrows. We also saw some rock climbers on the shear cliffs of the canyon. Zion is second only to Yosemite for climbing. On our drive we came across the old set used in many movies as well as the TV show Gunsmoke. Many Westerns where filmed near the town of Kanab, UT also know as Little Hollywood. They have many plaques throughout the town with pictures of the stars, including John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, who made movies here.

Zion & GSENM

Dinosaur Fossil
On the edge of Zion Canyon; Look at the switchbacks in the road below.
Desert bighorn sheep at the crest of the hill.
Buffalo; the birds follow them as they graze and eat the insects they stir up.
Dry Stream Bed Trail
Blooming Cactus

Walter's Wiggle-The easy part of the trail.

Nancy on the chains looking down 1200 feet.
Saddle to Angels Landing

We are now at the East Zion Riverside RV Park on the shores of the Virgin River in Mount Carmel, Utah. On the drive from Page we stopped at the visitors center for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM) which was established in 1996. It is an area the size of Delaware which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, not the park service, and has almost no developed roads. The biggest find during the survey of GSENM, which began in 1998, was the fossils of over 100 dinosaurs, some of which are on display in the center. Some of the fossils where just removed this year to save them from the expected rising of Lake Powell. Until this survey was done no one knew of any dinosaurs in this area. The Grand Staircase is the giant steps of land coming off of the Colorado Plateau that include Bryce Canyon National Park at the top. The bottom layer of rock in Bryce is the top layer in Zion and the bottom layer in Zion is the top of the Grand Canyon. The varied colors of different layers of stone give each park a unique appearance. Zion has the highest sandstone canyons in the world. To drive into Zion you pass through a 1.1 mile tunnel with turns and they have to stop traffic when an RV or bus goes through so it can go down the middle of the road in order to not hit the top and sides. We have done several hikes in the canyons and stream beds and have seen more magnificent rock formations while continuing to enjoy spring like weather. We have seen buffalo, desert bighorn sheep and many plants in bloom. Today we made a hell of an effort to go to Angels Landing but I could not bring myself to cross the five foot narrow saddle that drops off 1200 feet on one side and 850 feet on the other. The last half mile of the trail has chains to hold on to as you climb up and down the rocks. Every direction you turn you see another beautiful vista and the pictures, as usual, do not capture the true beauty of the surroundings. After this, we will be heading up the "staircase" to visit Bryce Canyon.