Arches National Park

Arches is one of the more popular national parks and we were there on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend so it was busy.  We hoped to make the best of it and did have to wait about 45 minutes to get in but then we found parking throughout the park easily which was lucky.  Apparently the Utah state patrol stopped letting people in around noon because there was over a mile back up to get in.

It is a beautiful place but we had seen a lot of the same landscape over the past week or so and were getting a little red rocked and sandstoned out.  Still, there are some worthwhile sights here.

A lot of the time when we take selfies we completely block what we are trying to capture.  This time we blocked it and created something obscene coming out of our heads so that's a double whammy.

Here is balanced rock balancing.

This looks like a face and makes me think of Old Man on the Mountain in New Hampshire, but that collapsed a long time ago and this will eventually too as that's how this type of rock works.

I know what you're thinking.  Isn't this place called Arches National Park?  Where are the arches?  Here you go.  There are over 2000 in the park.

This also kind of looks like a face.

This is double arch.  It's one of the cooler ones up close.

For perspective that little blue dot is Chrissy.

Underneath double arch.

This is landscape arch.  It looks a lot like Owachomo bridge.  Overall, I liked the bridges better.  You can't walk underneath this one because it is too unstable.

This is delicate arch which is the most famous and most worthwhile thing to see in the park.  It's on the Utah license plates.  It's about a mile and a half hike uphill but the view is worth it.

This picture is a bit dark but again for perspective we are down there at the bottom.

And of course, it would be remiss not to point out Chrissy's junior ranger accomplishments.

Dinosaurs and Canyonlands

Because  the Colorado Plateau  was at one time an inland sea, and also a tropical climate (think Pangea) it has both interesting geological  features,  and a high concentration of dinosaur  fossils.

At the Dinosaur  Museum in Blanding, UT, you can see many fossils, historic models, and dinosaurs depicted  through the ages.  Here is a photo through  a light box recreating images from the first Dino film, The Lost World.

Also, extensive work has gone into the exhibition to stress that many dinosaurs may have actually  had feathers. If these dinosaurs had a flighted ancestor, then they are flightless birds. If the ancestor is not a bird, then they are just a dinosaur with feathers. Lots of work is being done to fill in the knowledge in the evolutionary time line gap. In the meantime, these scale feathered models are still pretty scary.

On to Canyonlands National Park.  The park is broken  into 3 accessible  sections. We visited Needles. Because of that whole inland sea thing,  a salt done developed beneath  the earth's  crust, pushing up the sandstone and breaking it into fins. The salt then dissolved thanks to millions of years of rain, and thanks to that settling plus wind and sand erosion, we're  left with Needles.  A strange red rock and Sandstone landscape.

Wooden Shoe Arch 

Hiking in Needles, follow the cairns  ( the small piles of rocks here in the foreground) or you will get lost very quickly

See the Needles

Also, Ravens everywhere. This one decided to decorate our car.

Natural Bridges National Monument

Natural Bridges is basically in the middle of nowhere in Utah.  It's about 40 miles to the nearest town.  It has some of the darkest skies in the country and some of the best stargazing.  I saw a picture of it in a book and decided we needed to go there.  On a road trip like this you don't need much more of a reason.  There are three naturally created bridges in the canyon at the park that we visited via an 8.6 mile hike.  6.6 in the canyon and then 2 miles across the mesa back to the car.  The canyon hike is awesome but the last 2 miles back were a little rough.  Then again, we're not exactly seasoned hikers.

Fun fact number one:  the difference between a bridge and an arch is that bridges are created by moving water and arches are created by other forces (frost, erosion, etc.)  Fun fact number two: the difference between a national park and a national monument is that Congress has to vote for a park but the president can designate a monument.  Theodore Roosevelt made Natural Bridges a monument in 1908.

This first bridge is Sipapu.  It's crazy how the perspective changes based on how you are looking at the bridge.  The views from down in the canyon are our favorite.  Also notice how small I am.  These are big bridges.

There were ancient Puebloans in the area (as in most of the Colorado Plateau) and here's something they left behind.  

Hiking through the canyon is fun let alone the bridges.  Chrissy calls that cactus the heartcus

This is Kachina.  It's the thickest of the three.

This is Owachomo.  Again notice how the perspective changed based on where we were we were.  In the third shot it's actually kind of hard to pick out the bridge.

There are 13 first come first served camp sites in the park and we were lucky enough to snag one.  It's been unseasonably cooler this spring and one of our air mattresses deflated, but we've had fun camping.

Mesa Verde

Prepare to get your Ancient Puebloan on! Mesa Verde (green table) is one of the largest and best preserved sites of cliff dwellings in the world.

This statue at the visitor's center helps illustrate what life was like in part, climbing rock cliffs with  small hand and foot  holds, babies or harvest goods on their back.

Jim and I have never camped together before, or really ever. But we decided to make a go of it. The low at Mesa Verde got down to about 36 degrees. We both feel that's maybe a little  too cold to sleep outside. Also, one of our air mattresses died.  But we were not discouraged  and did camp the rest of the week across the Colorado Plateau. 

See, Green Table.

One of the ranger led tours you can sign up for is the Balcony House Tour, an opportunity  to scale the cliffs, and climb inside the actual dwelling. When I say scale cliffs, I really mean a series of ladders and steps, but pretty steep ladders and steps.

Looking through a window in Balcony House

Claret Cup Cactus, some of these desert  flowers are really colorful

View of Balcony House from across the Mesa. We were just there! 

The ladder into the Kiva at Spruce Tree House. A kiva is a round pit with a ceiling, fire pit,  and was used for spiritual and social gathering place. 

Practicing grinding corn, using a mano and metate

Us exploring Spruce Tree House

View of Cliff Palace, the largest dwelling in Mesa Verde 

The next junior ranger badge

Sedona and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

Our second day in Arizona, it rained, all day. This is one of the driest areas of the country, and it's not monsoon season yet, but still, rain. Also, atypically 25 degrees cooler than average. What to do in the rain? Go on a scenic drive and do some responsible wine and beer tasting.

We decided to make our way to Sedona via the Oak Creek Canyon scenic drive, route 89A. The mountain switchbacks and changes in elevation keep your speed to between 35 and 50 mph, which is fine, because even on a rainy day, you can't  help but look up at the red rock

Of course, with the weather, and our camera, we can't do it justice, but if you ever find yourself in this part  of Arizona, it's  worth  a peek.

And worth a taste. Arizona boasts one of the oldest wine growing regions in the country, so we hit up 3 wineries. At winery #2, we also learned about Oak Creek Brewing Company, probably  the tasty stop in the tour. Excellent  nut brown ale, free peanuts and popcorn, and Columbian Hot Dogs, seen here, complete  with cream cheese, pineapple and crushed potato chips.

The next day, we were grateful  the sun came out, and headed out to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.  The volcano,  now dormant,  erupted in 900, displacing several native Ancient Puebloans tribes.  It left behind cinder rock, lava flows, and a very strange, nearly untouched terrain. Here you can see us at an elevation  of nearly 7000 ft (a vertical hike mind you),  with Lenox Crater and the San Francisco mountains in the background.

Walking the Lava Flow Trail

Pausing to hug some quaking Aspens

The Bointo Lava Flow

Looking up at the Sunset Crater cinder cone. 

 Jim  is Groot