We stopped at the visitor center and got these cool hats.
We left Monument Valley and traveled North to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. They are only about 30 minutes apart. We’re staying at Dead Horse Campground – its right on the edge of Canyonlands. Canyonlands is broken up into three parts, Island in the Sky, the Needles and the Horseshoe Canyon Unit.
Canyonlands is in the heart of the Colorado Plateau. The Green and Colorado Rivers cut through and have created canyons, hundreds of mesas, buttes, fins, arches and spires. And they are so cool! There are three mountain ranges – the La Sals, the Abajos and the Henrys and they are all covered in snow.
These mountains kept getting closer and closer and I was getting nervous that it would get colder. There are three mountain ranges around us and they are snow covered, but it is still warm here. It is so strange to be in the desert … in shorts … and looking at mountains only 30 miles away covered with snow.
When we were standing at the overlook at the campground taking pictures, we heard a snorting sound coming from a ledge below us. We could not see around the corner on the ledge … and are wondering if we heard a bear????
Yesterday in monument valley we just missed a bobcat … not to worry … you throw rock at bobcats or black bears and they will go away and not bother you. That’s what the Navajo boy did … and the bobcat did not come back.
How does Dead Horse Point State Park get its name???? Well, there are a couple of legends. It is a high plateau that is a peninsula 2000 feet above the Colorado River – big drop offs. Anyway – on the way to the peninsula it gets very narrow – 30 yards wide. The point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa. They rounded up the horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point – then they blocked it off with branches and brush to create a natural corral surrounded by cliffs. The cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and for unknown reasons, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River. Now that’s an odd story.
This is the Colorado River (Gooseneck Section) from Dead Horse Point. See the jeep roadway down below – that comes in tomorrow…..
The geology of the park is really cool. You can actually see the different layers in the canyon walls. From the level of the Colorado River there are 7 layers
Arches National Park contains over 2,000 natural arches as well as giant balanced rocks, spires, pinnacles and slickrock domes. It is part of canyon country and carved and shaped by eons of weathering and erosion. The theory is that many many years ago inland seas covered this region and left behind salt beds that were eventually covered with stone. The salt layer rose up forming domes and ridges with valleys in between. Then groundwater dissolved the salt deposits and domes collapsed and weathered into the landscape that is the park today. I don’t know about all that … I think I see the handiwork of a God who loves creating.
This is North Window.
Today, there was a sign about mountain lions – it said that if you come upon one, STAND TALL, if attacked, FIGHT BACK! OOOOOKKKAAAAYYYYYY!!!!
This is Turret Arch
Double Arch
This is a hoodoo called Balanced Rock – 128 feet tall.
Wednesday ...
Exploring Island in the Sky @ Canyonlands
We drove all the way to the end – Grand View Point Overlook. Directly below is Monument Basin where columns rise more than 300 feet from the canyon floor.
See how there are two layers – that’s called the White Rim, a sandstone bench 1,200 feet below the Island. 1,000 feet beneath the White Rim are the Green and Colorado Rivers.
Then we went to Upheaval Dome. The surface drops into a mile-wide crater more than two miles wide with a center rock spire. There are three theories: a meteor, a volcano, or a dome formed by the upward flow of salt deposits.
This picture shows the center part. The dirt is actually green – its really bizarre – the colors are just amazing – pictures don’t do it justice.
This is the Mesa Arch – it was really windy – sand blew into every orifice.
... and now back to the jeep trail ...
We asked the ranger about trying the jeep trails – he recommended three – this is one of them. Its called the Shafer Trail. A dirt road hugging the walls of Shafer Canyon, descents 1,400 feet to the White Rim Mesa, then nearly 700 feet to the Colorado River. Indians were the first to use this route. Then in the early 1900s John Shafer and other ranchers drove cattle down this trail to winter in the sheltered canyons. In the Spring the cattle were driven back up the trail to graze in the upland meadows. (Yes, sometimes a cow would go over the edge.)
The uranium boom changed the face of canyon country in the 1950s. The Shafer Trail was upgraded (I think that term is termed loosely) to accommodate trucks carrying mining equipment into the canyons and hauling ore out. They must have drank lots of whiskey.
Did you ever decide to do something that you knew would be challenging, but you really thought “I can do this” and then realized, this is way beyond what you could handle … but its too late … there is no turning around. Well … this was one of those times … and there literally was no where to turn around! There are no pictures of the hairpin 2 point turns 2,000 + feet above the canyon because Tom was busy doing deep breathing and I had both feet and one hand on my passenger brakes. The other hand was hanging on for dear life. My eyes were glued to whatever side of the road held the ledge at that point. Tom kept saying “LOOK HOW FAR DOWN THAT IS!!!!! What are you nuts … I’m focused on the wall!!!! And then you think … what if someone is coming the other way … and of course someone does. You have to find the tiniest spot to let the other person by … and there are not a lot of spots.
Here’s one spot on the road where Tom got out to kiss the ground, beg for mercy and take a picture.
Once we got past the hairpin turns and the road leveled out … it was really neat. It was neat to see the canyon from a different perspective.
This portion of the river is called the “gooseneck”
When we finally got back onto paved road it felt really good.
These petro glyphs were along the road – about 10 feet or so off the ground – in pretty good shape considering the bullet marks and graffiti.
... tomorrow ... the rest of Arches ....
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