Moab 4

On our last day in the Moab area, we decide to explore the southern section of Canyonlands Park, called the Needles. This is a mesa area, lower than the Island in the Sky and about an hour's drive south.

Formations rise out of the desert land, some rising to 1000 feet.

This is the "Wooden Shoe Arch" appropriately.

The scuptures Peg's standing by could have been man made - but not, by nature.

We walked several trails across the red rock "slick rock" area. They were all marked by small cairns like this, to keep us on the trail.

At the end of the trail, we're rewarded with views like this.

We've done some back trails, but this looked like more than I wanted to handle.

These early native pictographs were inside the park area.
Peg's doing the warrior, I'm holding up the mountain.

These pictographs were outside the park at an area called "Newpaper Rock". The early tribes apparently stopped here to leave messages for those who followed. Fascinating to see.

Moab 3 - Canyonlands Park - Deadhorse State Park

Canyonlands National Park is divided into three sections by the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers. The northern section, called Island in the Sky, is about 30 miles north of Moab. Deadhorse State Park is on the same mesa and overlooks a lot of the national park.

These shots were taken from the statepark. Where you approach Arches park from the bottom of the valley, here you are driving on a relatively flat road until you are looking over the edge of a 250-300 foot cliff and across the valleys at neighboring mesas.

The same thing happens in Canyonlands Park. Once you conquer your stomach butterflies from looking down, all you can do is give voice to your awe. We've said that we need to record both of us saying "WOW!!!" so we can press a button when needed.

These shots only hint at the depth of the canyons.

We took this back road in the Jeep - not a terribly rough one, but with some tight turns and ups & downs. The last two shots are from the end of that road.

Moab 2

On the evening of the second day, we boarded a jet boat for a sunset ride on the Colorado River. The captain assured us that if we got in trouble, the water was only 3 feet deep - not to worry.

The 25 mile roundtrip took us through the gorge carved out by the river over time. These pictures don't do justice to the scenery - the walls towered up to 250 feet above us. Along the way we watched several rock climbers scaling the sheer faces of the rock walls, and near the spot we turned around, saw a pair of Rocky Mountain sheep far above us. Tried to get a picture, but they were too far away to be captured on camera. Anyhow, we've been looking for them ever since Denver. Several times advertised in brochures, but this is our only sighting to date.

After the ride, the tour outfit served a very good buffet dinner to all passengers.

Next, more rock shots from Canyonlands Park

Moab, UT - Arches National Park

Moab, Utah - we originally picked this place out from articles written in camping travel magazines. It's a tourist oriented town, in Utah red rock country, near several national parks and monuments. Our stay was everything we expected and more.

The first day we went into Arches National Park just north of town. The road into the park begins at the bottom of the Moab fault, where a valley collapsed as the plate collisions raised mountains on either side (100's of millions of years ago). As the road reaches the top of the mesa, rock formations like these rise out of the earth. We kept asking ourselves, "how could this happen?".

The official explanation from the guidebooks and park videos is that great oceans flooded the area several times over millions of years depositing salt layers thousands of feet thick. Minerals from higher elevations deposited over the salt and when the plates moved, cracks appeared that allowed water over the years to dissolve the salt layers, leaving the rocks. Water and wind erosion did the rest. We just marveled that a higher being allowed mother nature to create such beauty.

The arches were formed as water seeped into cracks in the

narrower sections of the "fins" and froze and broke pieces out of the formation. A ranger told us that a large piece fell out of the

overhang on the arch to the right two years ago.

More on this beautiful and exotic landscape next.

Salt Lake City area

We spent three days in the Salt Lake City area, based from a campground in Provo. The first day we boarded a bus that took us to Pioneer Park where there are memorials to the Mormon pioneers who crossed the country to settle here.

From there, we saw the State Capitol building and strolled Temple Square which is the site of the Tabernacle and other impressive LDS buildings.

Ended up in a restaurant in this house, which was owned by Brigham

Young. Later, we went to an organ recital in the Tabernacle.

The second day was spent driving several canyons in the Wasatch Mountains. We saw both Alta and Sundance ski areas, used for the winter Olympics held in the area. Came upon a little town holding a Swiss Day fair and strolled through the craft and food vendors tents.

The last day we attended the TV taping of "Music and the Spoken Word"
with the Tabernacle Choir. Their sound in person is awesome, better than their recordings.

In the afternoon we drove to Antelope Island State Park, in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. Peg's picture with the bison was prophetic, as we saw several herds as well as elk and antelope.

Yosemite 2

Our second day at Yosemite started at the Tuolumne grove of giant sequoias. These trees grow up to 200 feet high, and as you can see, their trunks grow big enough that you can carve out a space to drive a car through. They're the big cousins of the redwoods on the California coast.

We ate lunch on a gravel bar in the river, where Megan and Katie went for a swim. Then drove an hour up to Glacier Point, where these spectacular views of the valley were shot. The two on the left are of Half Dome mountain from slightly different angles. The upper left picture was taken sraight down the valley. The last shows two waterfalls not visible from the valley floor.

After saying a reluctant goodbye to Yosemite, we traveled back to Sacramento where the girls flew home.