Back to Earth

Our sightseeing tour by air was a marvelous experience. On Monday we drove 65 miles south to our next campground in Monticello Utah, and on Tuesday toured a very small part of Canyonlands National Park by jeep. We think we recognized some of the formations we saw from above, or at least the areas.

Here are a few of the remarkable rocks we saw in Canyonlands.

While driving through the park we stopped for a short hike at Pothole Point.

The surface was a large continuous dark gray rock with thousands of depressions, large and small. When there is rain, the holes fill with water and it stays long enough to support life such as tadpoles and small shrimp. A few of the now sand-filled depressions can be seen in the foreground of the above picture.

Most of the trail through this area was marked with cairns. It would have been very easy to get lost without them.

It is hard to show how large these rock cliffs are. Massive is a good adjective to use.

This is a detail I noticed. Layers within layers.

To me it is amazing how many different formations can be the result of a few forces: time, wind, water, upheavals and sinks.

On the way to and from Canyonlands we drove through about 30 miles of BLM land. "Newspaper Rock" is right along Utah 211 in the BLM.

 Petroglyphs have always fascinated me. 

These were amazingly well preserved by a huge rock overhang. 

The day itself was quite beautiful with temperatures in the 70s. I really would not want to be there when it is hotter, but I bet it would be beautiful with a dusting of winter snow. 

One last picture:

What to do on Hot Days in Moab

The National Weather Service forecast much higher temperatures here for Sunday through Tuesday. So we decided we have done enough hiking, and it was time to find some cooler activity.  What better than a three-hour jet boat ride down the Colorado River?

boat picture from web

I collected a number of brochures from the local racks and decided the three hour tour offered by Canyonlands by Night and Day was the best choice for us. 

The cost, $89 per person including taxes, was on par with the other companies offering similar trips, but their boat looked better. Covered from the sun and open on the sides with an aft deck for aggressive photographers. Our driver and guide was cheerful but not tiresome, a local guy that kept us smiling without overdoing the trite jokes.

We were not alone on the river. The folks below were equipped to take a much longer ride. Raft trips can span many days with camping at night. We saw at least one other raft that appeared to be part of this party.  We saw them at our hour-and-a-half turn around spot. Our guide said that one hour on our boat equaled almost a day on a raft, and that he had seen the same raft up river on his morning run. Without that umbrella the sun would be brutal!

It was neat to see Dead Horse Point from below, when we had walked to it several days before.  Dead Horse Point is the right end of the large rectangular butte on the right. The expanse to the left is close to the West Rim Trail that was the second half of our hike.

Our guide said there were many versions of the story about horses being left there to die, but that none of them were true. As a local, he said there is an area of white rocks below the point that looks like a large ghost horse, and it is this that gave the place its name.

Once again, so many fascinating red rocks. Do you see the Lazy Boy recliner?

The sand stone has so many textures and layers. In some places it looks like it could crumble away in a single storm.

These are quite smooth and rounded.  They are like the formations that Arches NP calls "petrified dunes", but the river has cut through them. The streaks of dark color are called rock varnish.

These 1600 year old petroglyphs were at least twenty feet above the ground level. I asked the guide how "they" had reached so high and first he said: "Indians in Moab were really tall".  Then he told us there had been sand and rock below that had been removed when the road there was made.

The end for today, but check back, there are more hot Moab days  coming up.

Petrified Forest National Park

Most tourists see the sights at the Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona in only one day. It is often a quick stop on the way to or from other attractions. There is one well-paved road that runs north and south through the park. There are no campgrounds within the park, and camping is limited to backpacking into the wilderness area. Although there are some short (2 miles or less) hiking opportunities, most of the park is seen from roadside pullouts or short paved walks. Being full timers allowed us the luxury of spending two days there.

On our first day we started at the 
south entrance on Hwy 180. When visiting a National Park, we always go to the visitors center first and watch the video.
It usually gives very good information. 

In this case there was a self guided walk through an area with quite a few large hunks of petrified wood lying about.

We left our car parked at the Visitor's Center and went down the road a short way to the Long Logs Trail. We were pleased that there was no one else on this trail. I guess it was because it was more than a few steps away from the parking area! Many of the logs were still all there.  I stood at the far end of this one to give a perspective as to how long they were.

In the morning the temperatures were in the mid 70's with a pretty stiff breeze. This part of Arizona is quite high so it doesn't have the blazing hot weather like the more southern parts of the state. 

We had our little lunch sitting on an ancient log. 

We spotted a Collared Lizard along the side of the path.

O.K. The picture above was taken off a sign. This is the picture I took. He was the first Collared Lizard I have ever seen, and I wish the picture had been a better one. 

Our next stop was at the Crystal Forest, an area that was ravaged by collectors. The logs in this area had a lot of crystals within the logs. In the past collectors shattered the logs with dynamite in order to remove the crystals.

These are some of the pieces in this area:

This log was down a slope and has separated as it was revealed by erosion. The separation into segments is natural. But I had fun imagining some long-ago woodsman cutting them up with his chain saw for firewood.  

As the day progressed, the wind picked up, and by mid afternoon it was blowing so hard it became uncomfortable to stand to near any cliffs or drop offs.  The clouds became thick and darker on the horizon, and I saw a few flickers of lightening in the distance. But it never did rain, and we continued our drive through the park.

The Petrified Forest National Park is not just about petrified wood.  There are also fantastic land formations all around.  The same minerals that permeated the wood are in the soils and have colored the residual soil.

After stopping at the Jasper Forest and Agate Bridge we drove around the Blue Mesa Loop. 

One would never know these formations exist  when driving along the flat desert lands just a half mile or so away.

We could have walked down to the bottom of this canyon, but were tired from our earlier walk and leery of the weather outlook.

We returned to the main road and not far to the north we came upon these formations which were called the Teepees.

Our last stop for the day was at the site of a pueblo ruin.  In this area there were many petroglyphs visible on the rocks.

Messages?  Magic?  Or ancient graffiti?

This post is getting way too long! I will write about our second day in the Painted Desert area soon.