Last Days in Utah

 Moab is known mostly for its proximity in Southeastern Utah to two National Parks, Arches and Canyonlands. We ventured out and hiked in both parks to explore the beauty and uniqueness of each.


Arches National Park has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world. There are over 2,000 documented arches in the park, ranging from sliver-thin cracks to spans greater than 300 feet. This area was once a massive desert, full of shifting dunes of fine-grained sand called the Estrada Formation. This sand formed a hard rock that is very porous, unlike the Carmel Formation that is made of sand and clay, which is softer and resists water. Both exist in the park.

Rainwater soaks into the porous Estrada Sandstone easily, but gets trapped by the Carmel. It can slowly dissolve the calcite bonding the sand together, “rotting” rock from the inside out. In winter, water trapped in cracks expands when it freezes, then contracts, prying the rock apart. As erosion happens, a variety of shapes appear. Rock walls erode into fins, and then holes form. “Windows” are arches that are large, are located on a high wall or fin, or frame a particularly scenic view below. Towering spires, pinnacles and balanced rocks - seemingly inadequate bases - vie with the arches as scenic spectacles.














Canyonlands National Park has three distinct areas. Island in the Sky is the most northern area, southwest is The Maze, and southeast is The Needles. Many of the second and third areas are not paved, therefore they are suitable only for access using high ground clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicles with high/low gear boxes and huge tires (think Jeeps, preferably equipped with winches and cables for when they get stuck).  ATVs and UTVs are prohibited from the park.  We entered thru the Island in the Sky entrance and drove the entire paved road, stopping for a couple of hikes and plenty of pictures.

Canyonlands preserves a wilderness of rock at the heart of the Colorado Plateau. Water and gravity cut flat layers of sedimentary rock into hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires. In the center are two canyons carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers. Few people knew these remote canyons and rivers well when the national park was established in 1964, other than Native Americans, cowboys, river explorers and uranium prospectors. Few others had dared to enter this rugged corner of southeastern Utah.



Below is Mesa Arch, one of the most prominent arches in Island in the Sky. The second picture below highlights the view thru the arch and beyond.






Below are the vast canyons seen in almost every direction.













Next -traveling on east to Colorado.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Range Riders” Country

Image
Miles City, Montana (population ~ 8,100) is located on I-94 between Bismarck, ND and Billings, MT along the Yellowstone River.  In the fall of 1876, after the Little Bighorn fiasco, Ft Keogh was one of several forts built to protect settlers and support other Army units. (Named after him, Captain Miles Keogh was killed at the battle on June 25, 1876; his horse Comanche was the lone survivor of that engagement.)  General Nelson Miles appointed the fort’s commander, and became the man in charge of “containment” of the Indians in this region. In 1877, merchants supplying the fort built a settlement nearby which became Miles City. Early on, Miles City became a terminal point for cattle drives originating in Texas. Longhorn cattle would be fattened on free grassland prior to being shipped via rail to Chicago for slaughter. At the time, rangeland between the states was not inhibited by (barbed wire) fenced ranches. Cowboys known as Range Riders herded the cattle; and many years late...
Read more

Into the Rockies

Image
We arrived at Glacier National Park on Wednesday afternoon after driving on state roads thru the rain much of the time, and taking a detour around Rt 89 due to heavy road construction for over 6 miles near the Park.  Elliott was exhausted from the trip and required an immediate nap. Wednesday night we had rain, with forecasts for potentially serious thunderstorms and a flood watch for Thursday. We ventured out the next morning to the St Mary’s entrance and visitors’ center to talk with the Rangers and scope out the area. Because of extremely overcast skies and predictions of storms ahead, we hung out in our campground and did maintenance and cleaning chores, including laundry. Friday morning we took a morning drive west on the Going-to-the-Sun Road for the first 12 miles or so. On Friday afternoon we went on a scenic boat tour in the Many Glacier area, northwest of St Mary and about a 50 minute drive to the Many Glacier Hotel where we met the boat. We sailed across the Swiftcurrent...
Read more
Image
Seeley Great Adventure 2022 Hello family and friends, we’re back!! Our winter in Florida has been eventful. Between doctors’ visits, golf, boating, fishing, more doctors’ visits, plays and concerts, all wrapped around a bout of Covid in January, we’re getting ready for our second “Around the Country” Great Adventure RV trip (2022). We’ll be heading up through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Then we travel across Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana, down through Idaho, Utah and Arizona, and finally head home across Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. All in all we’ll stay at 37 campgrounds, spend 78 nights on the road, visit at least 8 National Parks and travel over 8,000 miles. You know, just a short trip! , We’re going to use this blog instead of e-mails like last year. It allows us to post more photos in better clarity and scale, all without causing some of you frustration with the inability to open the p...
Read more