MOAB / ARCHES NATIONAL PARK - Part 2 
and, Following The Yellow Brick Road 

I apologize for the long wait between posts. We returned home from the first part of our sabbatical for a short visit and have been traveling again, this time to Wales, so I have been distracted from finishing up the last post from Arches and the remainder of our road trip home through the mid-west.

To pick up where I left off in my last post...........after our hike along the Devils Garden Trail, we got back in the car to drive to some of the other highlights in the park. One thing that stood out to us so much was the intense color of everything in the landscape. The sky, so blue.....the contrasting colors of the earth. We had to stop the car constantly to get out and just look at the stunning expanse that surrounded us. There is something so spiritual about this landscape. Being here is good for the soul.

We thought this rock formation looked just like a hand coming up out of the ground. Maybe the hand of an American Indian chief rising up out of the ground to greet us, saying "How" (or "Howgh" used as a greeting by the Sioux) :o)

Courthouse Towers

Tower of Babel

How much bluer can that sky be!?

Do you see what we see?

This just has to be an ancient Indian Goddess. How nature could have created this image is truly amazing. It was HUGE.

The Great Wall

A group of saints having a conversation?

This is another incredible image that has been created by nature. It is crazy how images like this are created in the sandstone through millions of years of erosion.

Here is a little more on the history of these rock formations: 
 Entrada Sandstone began forming here more than 150 million years ago as tidal flats, desert, and beach deposits. Over time, layers of rock, perhaps a mile thick, covered these deposits. Tremendous pressure from these rock layers compressed the buried sand into sandstone and cracked it. Erosion then removed the overlying rock layers and the Entrada began to weather. 
Within the past two million years, erosion of the cracks in the Entrada has left vertical slabs like the ones seen throughout the photos in this post. These slabs, called fins, are the first step in arch formation.

The Park Avenue formation (named for its resemblance to the sky scrapers in NY), seen here, is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Beware the Velociraptor! 

This whole region around the Arches National Park is dotted with archeological dig sites, so there are many dinosaur surprises all around the area. The Velociraptor just happens to be my favorite dinosaur (I love how they work as a team to stalk their prey - in the movies anyway :o) so I made a radical lane change to get to this guy so I could have a few words with him............
...........Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

We left Moab and ANP and headed east on Interstate 70 towards Colorado. The landscape began to change again as the red rock of Utah became the grey, gypsum earth of western Colorado.

As we passed through Grand Junction and began to climb into The Rockies we noticed some weather ahead of us. We knew there was still a possibility of a snow storm in late April so we were prepared for the worst. Well.................that is what we got!

As we approached Avon and the summit the snow began to fall. By the time we reached Vail it was really coming down. We had about 25 miles of near white-out conditions. It's funny how we began this whole adventure back on Jan. 5 with an ice storm in Dallas and are now approaching the end of our trip in late April to another snow event. Good thing our car has all wheel drive!
 
 Kansas
Yes, Dorothy, we are in Kansas!
Just when you cross over the Colorado border into Kansas, in a little town called Goodman, you can find another one of those odd and unusual attractions, the worlds largest reproduction Van Gough painting "Three Sunflowers in a Vase". You can see this huge painting on this YUGE easel from I70 as you go by on the highway. We just had to make another radical lane change to get off of the highway to go have a look-see. The 
painting is 24x32 feet and the easel stands 80 feet tall. Crazy, but true! 

Then there was this........

.....and more of that.......

The good thing about all of this and that is that you can certainly see what is coming for quite some distance :o)

 In Atcheson, KS with our friend Amelia Earhart.

Yes, Dorothy, we keep telling you that we are in Kansas. Now do you believe us? :o)

Our last stop was to see my cousins while passing through the heartland. Here I am with my cousins Ken and Mike

........With my Uncle Bill

......on the farm with Mike & Penny.

The day we left Kansas for the last leg of our journey home, we were met with the most extreme weather we have experienced since early January. The forecast was for extreme weather from Kansas City, MO all the way to Indiana. We filled the gas tank, stocked our ice chest with food and water and headed into it. All we can say is it was biblical. It's as if nighttime had fallen upon us in broad daylight. There were times the rain was so heavy we could not see 15 feet in front of us. We could not get off of the freeway because the flooding was so bad on every lower road, we would have been stalled. UGH! White knuckles anyone?

We didn't come out of the storm until we reached Terra Haute at the Illinois/Indiana border.

Here you can see the huge Wall Cloud we came out of at Terra Haute. We are so lucky that the Yellow Brick Road got us home without a tornado. Now that would have really been a Wizard of OZ experience! :o) We were clicking our heels together more than once saying "Auntie Em! I want to go home!" Thank god we made it safe and sound and thanks for coming on this adventure with us.

Now, back to our own house and garden, some new kittens and those laying hens. Scrambled eggs anyone? :o)


More travel adventures coming soon.

MOAB / ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Part 1

Moab is a small town nestled in between Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in southern Utah (31 miles south of Interstate 70 and 18 miles west of the Utah/Colorado state line). The town bustles with mountain bikers, hikers, rock climbers and water sport enthusiasts (who seek out the excitement of the nearby Colorado River for whitewater rafting and kayaking). 

Choosing photos to share on the blog was not easy. Every corner we turned in the park had a more stunning view than the last. A photo of this place has a hard time capturing the true magnificence of the landscape, but here we will try. The colors that come out of the earth are truly amazing! We were here in late April so there was still lots of green from the spring rain.

As we entered the park.....

Devils Garden Trail

We decided to drive to Devils Garden at the farthest end of the park to start our hiking. This is the longest trail in the park where you can view 7 impressive arches.

At the trail head

It only took us about 15 minutes to find a lizard, which made my day. I have been chasing lizards since I was 5 years old, so I was so happy that this little guy just sat there and let me take photos of him for a very long time.

Tunnel Arch

Pine Tree Arch

The surprising floral life in the desert landscape

Wild Lupins

Pale Evening Primrose

 

Asteraceae (sunflower family)

Landscape Arch
  ......At 306 feet long, it is one of the largest natural spans in the world.

Just after Landscape Arch the trail takes a very steep and narrow turn. We had to pay close attention to every step and try not to look at the steep drop on either side.

We found this Cairn (Gaelic word meaning "mound of stones built as a memorial or landmark") at the top of our climb letting us know what direction to go to stay on the trail.

Our reward for walking up that narrow ridge.......

What a view!!!!

A couple of movies showing the spectacular panoramic views of the valleys from the top of the ridge.

Tapestry Arch

Me taking some time to have one of my Zen moments

On the trail to Navajo Arch

Navajo Arch

Partition Arch

Don't look down!!!

 

That's me in the front of the pack. Weeeeeeeeee!! The two guys behind me were braver than I was to go right to the end stone where you had to hop across to get there! ACK!

What goes up, must come down....... A video of our descent down that very steep and narrow slick rock path.

I will get to the rest of the park in my next post.

Some New Terrain

The time has come to finally begin our journey home. We had every intention to head east through the Canadian Rockies and drop down into the Dakota's for more National Park sight seeing, but the heavy spring snows along that route forced us to make the spontaneous decision to head back south through Eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and into Utah to get to Moab where we will spend a few days hiking around Arches National Park.

The following photos will show some of the very dramatic scenery and weather we encountered along our journey. Some really beautiful stuff.

Washington
Hwy 90 through the Cascades to Hwy 82 through Yakima

Snoqualmie Pass

 

Entering the Yakima Valley

Kennewick, Washington looking south towards Eastern Oregon

We were just a little hesitant to drive into this storm, not knowing what havoc was being created by these very threatening clouds............luckily the highway took us in a direction that just skirted the very edges of the storm.

Eastern Oregon
Highway 84

Idaho
Highway 84

Utah
Highway 84

Just minutes after crossing the border into Utah, we came upon this cowboy on his horse. We noticed there were very few side roads or highway exits along this stretch of road making this the best way to get around in this place.

Southeast of Salt Lake City 

US Route 6/191 
We decided to take this shortcut/scenic route through the Wasatch Plateau to get down to Interstate 70 and WOW!.....this is where the scenery started to make a dramatic change.

 Helper, Utah

We couldn't resist stopping in this little town, mostly because of its name.

Helper is located about 110 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. It is known as the "Hub of Carbon County". The population is about 2,000. There used to be a thriving coal mining industry here and Helper is the home of the Western Mining and Railroad Museum, a tourist attraction that also contains household and commercial artifacts illustrating late 19th and early 20th-century living conditions. There is also a colorful Brothel history here: http://utahstories.com/2010/10/helper%E2%80%99s-brothel-mining-history-tino/  Who knew!
Go here for more about Helper: http://www.castlecountry.com/Helper-Utah

"Big John"

"Big John" is a towering coal miner entirely covered in glossy black paint. Custom-made by International Fiberglass in 1964. - See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2468#sthash.PH9RfmVN.dpuf

"Big John" is a towering coal miner entirely covered in glossy black paint. Custom-made by International Fiberglass in 1964. - See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2468#sthash.PH9RfmVN.dpuf√

"Big John" is a towering coal miner entirely covered in glossy black paint. Custom-made by International Fiberglass in 1964. - See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2468#sthash.PH9RfmVN.dpuf

"Big John" is a towering coal miner covered in shiny black paint. He was custom-made by International Fiberglass in 1964. He stands in front of the Helper library on Main Street.

I don't recall seeing a brand new painted coca-cola ad on a building in a very long time. We found one here.

"Big John" is a towering coal miner entirely covered in glossy black paint. Custom-made by International Fiberglass in 1964. - See more at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2468#sthash.PH9RfmVN.dpuf

And we thought we would never see a sign like this here. HA!

  Main Street in Helper, Utah

We reached Interstate 70 and then continued south on Highway 191 towards Moab.

We knew we were getting close to Moab when we spotted this Velociraptor trying to hide in the bushes. :o)

The red rock formations started to appear just a few miles outside of the Arches National Park/Moab area.

More coming from Moab and the park. Stay tuned.......