Canyonlands National Park (Utah)

The second half of the week we stayed in Moab (September 2016) we visited Canyonlands National Park. Part of the same geological processes that created the stunning landscapes in Arches National Park just down the road, Canyonlands is much less crowded, and less visually inviting at a first glance. But its starkness and vastness make it splendid in its own right. The colorful landscape has been carved into countless canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado and Green Rivers, and their respective tributaries. Author Edward Abbey described the Canyonlands as “the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth – there is nothing else like it anywhere”, and I would have to agree.

With virtually no shelter from the sun, visitors have to choose carefully where and when to hike on the 100’s of miles of trails, many of them rugged and remote, with no facilities, including no fresh water, along the way. It seems this barren environment wouldn’t support much life at all, but the park is home to over 15 mammals (including black bears, bobcats, bats, and deer), at least 273 species of birds (lots of hawks, owls, and eagles), several species of reptiles (count the rattlesnake among them), and six confirmed amphibian species (frogs and salamander). We saw many birds, but none of the other inhabitants the days we were there.

We spent just a couple of days exploring the Canyonlands, so there will be plenty left to do when we come back here next time! 

Arches National Park (Utah)

After leaving St. Louis in mid-September, we headed west to Moab, Utah, for a week-long stay to visit Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park. Moab is a charming small town in Eastern Utah that merits attention in its own right, but the main draw is its proximity to the National Parks, and we were among the many tourists who had the same idea we did – the crowds were impressive, to say the least.

The first half of the week we spent hiking and sightseeing at Arches National park. Located on the Colorado river, Arches has over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch which reaches 60 feet into the sky. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world spread over 76,679 acres. Over 1.3 million visitors a year come to see these amazing formations, and it’s no wonder why. The shapes, colors, and impossible angles of the rock formations seem to defy explanation and suspend belief, and to walk among these wonders of nature is like stepping into another universe.

As you gaze at the incredible stone creations, you can’t help but see the resemblance to animals, humans, and creatures, and the names given the various formations reflect this natural tendency to anthropomorphize the natural world. Names include Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, Broken Arch, Skyline Arch, Double-O, Navajo Arch, Eye of the Whale, and Skull Arch. We saw many of these during our three full days of exploring the park, but not nearly enough to satisfy our curiosity. Another place to put on our list of “Places To Return To”.

Bryce Canyon National Park

The culmination of our two week tour of northern Arizona and southern Utah was our day trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. Once again, this proved to be a place of indescribable geological formations, a vast rolling landscape of red, pink, yellow and white hoodoos. The surroundings are otherworldly, at times ghostly and ethereal, and walking among these ancient towers was like being transported to some other planet. We hiked through several trails in the park, and at every turn in the road was a new shape, a new color, and a new impression, with our eyes constantly drawn skyward to the spires and pinnacles at the top of each hoodoo. At the bottom of the canyons, as I wound my way around the rock formations I felt tiny and insignificant, almost like an intruder into some secret world. Along the ridges, gazing down into the canyons below, the hoodoos were transformed into rippling waves of an ocean of rock, with arrangements that looked like gigantic aquarium ornaments.

“Poetry in Stone” is how the National Park brochure describes Bryce Canyon, and I can’t think of a more apt definition. Millions of years of weathering and erosion shape the rocks, with flowing water playing only a minor role in this story. As snow and ice melt, water seeps into fractures. As it re-freezes, it expands and cracks the rock around it. The combination of gravity and meltwater causes soil creep, moving the stone fragments downhill. There, is of course, always a geological explanation for all planetary structures and phenomenon, and hoodoos are curious and captivating, begging the questions of “how?”, “why?” and “when”?  But the immediate experience of seeing the crystalline blue sky, rocks ablaze with sunlight, shifting shadows wrapping in and out of the hoodoos as the day progresses, and the forces of nature creating this dynamic, mesmerizing place cannot be confined to merely geological terms. Hopefully our pictures help fill in some of the blanks as well.