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Category Archives: road trip

Sunset over the Colorado

We were lucky to find Dead Horse Point State Park not busy. It is the most popular state park in Utah for good reason. It sits high above the Canyonlands National Park with incredible views down into the Colorado River’s winding canyon. The layers of rock are highlighted by the rising and setting sun. It’s a popular place with photographers and I saw a number of them with their tripods at sunset. After dark, the place had wonderful dark night skies. No ambient light in sight from our camp. The moon was bright enough that I did not need my head lamp to get around at night. And it was very quiet. After staying at RV parks near busy highways, it was a relief to be in such a beautiful place again.

Those ponds are solar evaporation ponds for a potash mine.
Ever-changing light

 

Back to Utah

We woke the next morning to even colder weather. It was 11 degrees Fahrenheit. 11. In a tent trailer. And the forecast said it was not going to get warmer. So I fed the dogs, made a quick cup of coffee and some tea in a thermos and two PBJ sandwiches and quickly folded up the camper. In near record time. I looked at weather forecasts for other parts of New Mexico, SW Colorado and into Utah. The warmest place was Moab so we headed north. It took much of the day but we pulled into the sprawling tourist town around 4:30 and found a dog-friendly hotel and settled in for a warm night.

In the morning we drove to Fisher Towers for a wonderful hike in the red rock country. It was a great hike with panoramic views over the Colorado River and into the rugged Onion Creek area to the south. The towers themselves are incredible pinnacles of red rock, attractive to rock climbers.

See the climbers?
Now you can see them.
This could be a bit of an obstacle
We found a way around it
I watched that shadow move across the rock
Hurry – you wouldn’t believe what’s around that corner!
Looking back to the Colorado River
Can you see the blue spot? That’s a paraglider or something like it. Why would they want to land there?
We had to navigate this steep slot to get around the place with the ladder
Can you see the guy on top of the rock?
Now can you see him?
Now there is a person on top of the middle rock.
Best hiking dogs ever
Best hiking dogs ever

What Lives in the Desert

In a world of little rain, much manages to live and thrive in the desert climate of the southwest. Junipers and pinyon pines, shrubs of all sorts, cacti, lichens of all colors – even blue, and I imagine all sorts of flowering plants that show themselves in the spring. And in an ephemeral pool, I found tadpoles! So somewhere there are frogs or toads, maybe under the crust of a dried up pool. Even the soil is alive with cryptobiotic crust composed of algae, fungi and cyanobacteria. The canyons’ rock walls erode away little by little contributing soil continuously. Roots inch their way into cracks, enlarging the cracks and storing moisture and soil for future growth.

See the tadpole?
Mistletoe growing in a juniper tree

Scenic Drives

The landscapes of the southwest are expansive and sometimes, you need to travel by car in order to begin to take it in. These images are from the scenic byway – highway 95, the Moki Dugway and the Valley of the Gods.

The Temple Mountain pictographs are a short drive from Goblin Valley
These have weathered badly and also been defaced even though they are quite high and to me, seemed inaccessible.
Parts of the rock have sloughed away.
Along highway 95, the cottonwood trees were in full fall glorious colors
Lots of water in the wash
Raven at the Glen Canyon overlook
Hite Marina, high and dry
I think these are the Henry Mountains
The Moki Dugway road connects two state highways
The Valley of the Gods

Goblin Valley

We arrived at Goblin Valley on Halloween. That was not planned. It just happened.

The landscape of Goblin Valley is pretty unbelievable. As you approach the park, you can see the looming Wild Horse Butte that dominates the horizon. The campground sits right at the foot of it. During the short fall days, the light is constantly changing, giving new looks to the rocks and cliffs. Sandstone walls give the camping area a sense of protection from the elements. They also provide a pallet for people with high-powered spotlights to illuminate in the darkness. The second night I was there, numerous people were enjoying that activity while I was trying to do night sky photography. According to its website, Goblin Valley is known for its dark skies, perfect for attempts to photograph the stars. I had mixed results.

The goblins of Goblin Valley are stone shapes that resulted from millions of years of geologic history. They are made of Entrada sandstone (debris eroded from former highlands redeposited on a tidal flat). The goblins show evidence of being near an ancient sea with the ebb and flow of tides, tidal channels and coastal sand dunes. Fracture patterns within the sandstone beds create zones of weakness. The unweathered joints intersect to form sharp edges and corners with greater surface-area-to-volume ratios than the faces. As a result, the edges weather more quickly, producing spherical-shaped goblins. This information is from the Goblin Valley brochure.

Whatever caused the stone shapes in the valley, it is well worth it to get down off of the overlook and walk throughout the three valleys of goblins to get an up-close view of the impressive and whimsical rocks.

My campsite is at the lower left