Canyonlands National Park

Day 2 in Moab,UT and we have decided to drive to Canyonland and drive through "The Island in the Sky" portion of the park.
From this drive we will hike to all view points.

We ended up taking the top off the jeep and about half way through the drive it began to hail. So we put it back up.

When you look at this park you can see it eventually becoming another Grand Canyon.

Tracy Tull hiking to view point.  Lee is in front of her.

See the road below?  We are going to take that trip to the bottom of the canyon with our jeep after we finish the view points.

I think the desert floor is so pretty.

 

Please God no vertigo attacks right now!!

Two hikers taking a rest.

See what I mean about the next Grand Canyon?

That is the Green River below, which merges with the Colorado River in this canyon.

This is referred to as Upheaval Dome. Geologists cannot figure out what forced this upheaval or explain why it is this color.  It remains a mystery.

Here we are at the beginning of the jeep trail to the bottom of the canyon.

I don't mind telling you, it is a little scary up here.

Yep, we are  going to be going down there.

Look at the road that goes down the canyon.

The switchbacks were a tad frightening.

How many more do we have to go?

This is just a little too tight to feel comfortable!!!

I thought we were done with these!!!

Down we go.

Worth the drive, it is lovely down here.

The Green River.

I loved the way the sun brought out the colors in this rock.

Isn't this a cool formation?

This is a potash mine.

We were looking for wild life all day long and didn't see anything except some birds until we got to the bottom of the canyon and here we found some cows and these two posed very nicely for me.

Visual candy

The many blooms we saw today

This is day 3 and it is raining right now so I am working on the blog.  As soon as it clears, we will head out again. I will leave you with a nice quote by John Steinbeck

"The desert is a good school in which to observe the cleverness and the infinite variety of techniques of survival under pitiless opposition.  Life could not change the sun or water....so ti changed itself"

Arches National Park 2015

We left Bryce National Park and traveled to Moab, UT. We are staying at the ACT Campground just outside of Moab, UT.  From here we will explore the Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

The first day we spent driving through the park and stopping at the view points and taking short hikes to points of interest.

I am amazed how different each park is and how each has it's own unique beauty. Not one more beautiful than the other just a different form of beauty. God is not limited in his ability to show us beauty is He?

These are the La Sal Mountains. The orange flower in the foreground is very prolific here.

Notice all the texture on the rock we are walking on.

This stone is referred to as the three gossips.

We continue to follow the desert blooms.

Where there are rocks there will always be climbers.

Those yellow flowers above have the most beautiful aroma.

Lee caught me doing what I'm always up to on these trips.

Here is what the park is known for the beautiful arches

Your eyes are continually drawn back to the beautiful La Sal Mountains

Look at the unique erosion on the rocks.

When you stand in the midst of all of this, you do, indeed, feel very small.

Well that was the end of day one. It was a full day and gave us a great overview of the park and some short hiking trails.