Arches National Park
After another (somewhat chilly) evening under the stars,
we made our way to Arches National Park.
Taking pictures in Arches is all about what time of day you are in
what part of the park.
Because of this we missed some of the premium photo opportunities.
But we enjoyed exploring the beauty of this area that has so many arches!
We took a hike along Park Avenue,
with its amazing views of many formations on all sides.
I even got to see some tiny shrimp swimming around in little pools of water.
Pretty amazing!
We drove to the end of the road and went for a hike along
the Devils Garden Trail. What an amazing collection of arches!
Landscape Arch (the first photo) is an amazingly delicate piece of rock,
floating above the ground.
It lost a big chunk of the rock several years ago,
showing the temporary nature of all things.
Another arch near by completely collapsed earlier in 2010.
Nature in motion.
Look at how clear the air was for us!
Everything just popped,
The Colours,
The Texture,
The Layers,
The Feeling!
From this perspective balanced rock truely looks amazing.
It looks as if the constant tug of gravity would pull it down at any time.
And some day it will.
But when you walk around the back side of it, you see that it is a bit of
an optical illusion.
The rock has more of a base than it appears,
it will hold its place for a while longer.
Eventually it will be called too strongly by the grounds loving embrace,
and it will tumble down, to become one with the dirt that surrounds it.
I think my little car enjoyed its adventure through the Southwest!
It got to go explore the dirt roads.
Enjoyed the views along the way.
Camped with us each night,
and sometimes even kept us a little warmer on those really chilly nights
(as we curled up in the front seats)
Got us to each place in comfort.
What could be a better experience for a little car?
We even spent the night camping in the backcountry of Arches.
We found an amazing spot surrounded by red rock.
After setting up camp I climbed up some of the slick rock,
a beautiful slopping rock, easy to climb up.
And I sat there,
admiring the beauty of the evening light reflecting off the red rock.
I returned to this spot in the morning to watch the morning light move across the rock.
It was amazing to see how different, yet similar it was.
After our adventure through Arches we spent a day
doing the tourist thing in Moab.
I bought a couple of books that turned out to be very inspiring to me.
We looked at beautiful pieces of art.
We caught up with the internet world at the Library.
And then we headed out of town, to search for our evening camp spot.
The arch above was one on the side of the road,
south of Moab.
Each arch holds so much beauty!
Canyonlands ~ Island in the Sky
Ok, I am obviously failing at keeping up with blog posts.
Part of the reason is that we are getting ready to move!
Hopefully by the end of this week we will be driving over the North Cascades,
back to our home in Winthrop Washington!
We lived there from 2005 to 2007, and I LOVED it there.
It has called me back ever since we left, and now I am returning home.
But for now I continue my posts on our Southwest trip.
We drove in the north entrance of Canyonlands,
heading toward Island in the Sky.
We again stopped at the visitors center and watched the video on this park.
Then after talking to the rangers for a little bit, getting a feel for places
that we could camp that evening, we headed out to do the viewpoints.
I was feeling a little sluggish that day,
my body did not feel like a long hike.
So we did a short hike to the upheaval dome area.
Then we drove to the Green River Overlook,
and enjoyed sitting at the edge of the cliff looking out over the view.
It was peaceful to simply sit, and witness Nature.
Looking out across this vastness it was amazing to reflect on the
fact that water had created all of this.
It is a slow process from our perspective,
but in the lifetime of the earth it is an ever flowing process.
The earth shows us that “aging” is a graceful process,
one in which to embrace every line,
every contour,
every experience!
We then drove to the Grand View Point Overlook.
There is a lovely trail here that we walked down a little bit and found
a over hanging rock to relax by.
We took books with the intention of simply being in this space for a while.
As soon as we sat down I felt the rocks pulling me down,
gently into their embrace.
My eyes grew heavy and I did not fight it.
I laid down embracing the rocks,
feeling completely comfortable on their warm surface.
I slept.
I dreamed.
I wish I could remember the dreams.
Isn’t it cute how I cross my feet while I sleep?
haha, I just love that picture!
As I met Mother Nature in Dream Land,
Bernie enjoyed Being with Nature.
He Read.
He Witnessed.
He took pictures of me sleeping.
It was an easy place to Be Natural.
As the sun drifted lower in the sky,
we made our way back down the road and onto BLM land to spend the night.
It was a great day of resting with nature.
My mind, body and soul were re-charged, and I was ready for hikes again!
Capitol Reef National Park
I am finally back to my blog after the holidays.
I sat down with the intention to do a post several times,
and always found myself pulled away or distracted by something else.
And so now I return to posts about our trip to the southwest this fall.
We explored Capitol Reef on Bernie’s Birthday, Halloween.
On our way from Bryce to Capitol Reef we drove through Escalante National Monument,
What a spectacular, vast, moving stretch of land this is!
There is simply so much there that we decided it needed to be a whole trip in itself.
So we will return to Escalante in the future to absorb its immense beauty.
Steadily my little car climbed this hill.
We stopped at a view-point to enjoy the overlook of just a bit of Escalante’s beauty.
I love that even while seeing our path before us on a road map,
Nature still holds surprises for us around each turn.
I truely did not know we would be going as high as we did.
It had been quite cold, and as you can tell at the higher elevations some
snow even fell.
We ran into a couple icy spots on the road. This was the first main one.
I have to say we were both a bit nervous of the icy road with the downward
sloping turn. Neither of us knew how my new car would deal with it,
and perhaps because it was a new car we wavered.
Yes, it was fear, most likely completely unwarranted.
We pulled off the side of the road for just a little bit, we were not sure what was up ahead,
was it worse? Perhaps it would warm a bit?
After enjoying the view for a bit and hashing over our hesitation, we decided
that we were being too cautious. Of course if we were aware and just felt our way along the ice,
we would be fine!
And so we did, we moved forth, dissolving the fear that was holding us back.
Yay little car! You will be fine!
And so we all were.
Capitol Reef is a unique area.
It is called the waterpocket fold. A giant buckle in the Earths crust.
This has then been eroded in different ways to reveal the formations that are present today.
We stopped at the visitors center and watched a video about the park.
On our trip I really enjoyed the video at each park, they are well done,
and give you a better over all perspective on the park.
After learning a bit about the history of the site that the visitors center was on
(which I will talk about more below)
We drove to the end of the scenic drive.
This is a fun road that is paved part of the way, and then toward the end it turns to dirt,
and at the very end you are actually driving through a wash.
You are not allowed to go to the end if it is raining anywhere in the area because of flash floods.
At the end of the road there are a couple of trail heads.
We took the trail that went toward Golden Throne.
Shortly up the trail we peeled off layers that were quickly growing too warm
in the sunshine and physical movement.
I had my moccasins and Native American flute in my hands.
With my layers of clothes I shed my broiling hot running shoes and slipped on my soft moccasins.
We stashed our layers behind a rock and continued on.
The trail meandered through beautiful shades of red and yellow.
We zigged and zagged in and out of little washes
as we contoured the hillside.
We reached the top with a spectacular view of Golden Throne in one direction,
and groupings of mountains in the distance the other.
It was an inspiring place to sit and play my flute.
Its song echoed off the rock around us.
A wash below sang with me as the notes trickled down into its its corners and crack,
bouncing off a rock here, tumbling along the sand there.
And when the music tired of wandering the path that water followed down the valley it
would spring free and somersault among the sandstone,
bouncing ever higher on the energy of the landscape.
On the way back down we came to a part of the trail that
traveled along the bottom of a large cliff wall.
Any sound that was made bounced off it like a Parkour artist.
We stopped so I could play with my flute,
bantering with the spirits of the wall.
My flute sang, the wall spit it back.
I played more notes, and the rock spirits tossed them back, like a child tossing stones in a pond.
Every once in a while they would miss a note that got lodged in a crack.
I wonder if some day as the rains wear away the rock if one of those notes will become dislodged,
and trickle down the valley.
Will someone hear it?
Bernie joined in once in a while with his voice.
When we had finished playing with the rock spirits we continued back down the path to the car.
We returned to the valley that the visitors center was in.
This part of the valley used to be called Fruita.
It was a small community that lived in the valley and raised fruit trees.
What a beautiful place to call home!
There are still some of the old orchards, and even a house and school building.
They keep the orchards going as part of the historic site.
Our last stop was at a Petroglyph wall.
I had seen this once before on a brief stop in the park,
but I had forgotten all about it.
It is truely amazing to see the artwork of people who really no longer exist.
Our modern society has almost completely erased all civilizations that lived as our
Native American ancestors did.
I would love to be able to pop back in time, and see the community of the people who
filled this wall with their perspective on their world.
I would love to see how they were completely in tune with nature,
living with her instead of trying to dominate her.
So it is with their beautiful creations that we bid farewell to Capitol Reef National Park.
Bryce Canyon National Park
After our nice long visit in Zion we drove to Bryce Canyon.
On our way we stopped at the visitors center for Red Canyon.
It would have probably been a nice place to explore more, but after visiting
with the Rangers working there, and getting answers to some questions we had,
we continued onto Bryce.
We stopped in at the visitor center and got a feel for what the Park had to offer.
We decided to camp overnight in the “backcountry”.
So we did our paperwork for our overnighter, and then drove to do some of the
viewpoints before we started our hike.
The views are just amazing at Bryce.
One truly feels as if they are sitting on the edge of the world.
The vastness that stretches out in front of you is filled with so many colours and textures!
The stretch of Red Rock here is not as extensive as some other areas,
but the formations that have emerged from within it are so stunning!
It truly shows the temporary nature of rock and soil.
You can see the rawness of nature slowly wearing away at a material
that we think of as so hard and permanent.
After enjoying our views we started our 3 mile hike down into the canyon.
We took the Under the Rim Trail from Bryce Point down to the first campsite.
The trail took us past some amazing formations and scenery.
We were able to look back at the red wall that the tourists stand upon to look out
at the formations. What beauty!
These balancing rocks were amazing!
What a spectacular illustration of erosion.
I was endlessly amazed that they could stay balanced upon their little dirt columns.
A beautiful lesson in balance.
When we start to question what we believe to be concrete,
we will find that we will start to gently erode away those things that no longer serve us,
and we will find that we do not topple to the ground,
but float free, like a feather!
Our campsite was a lovely quaint little spot on a creek.
We enjoyed the evening listening to the water trickle near us.
We set up our tarp just as the darkness of evening crept into the little valley we were in.
Fixed a quick meal of veggie sandwiches, and then slipped into our sleeping bags.
It proved to be a bit of a chilly night,
but it was amazing to absorb the crispness of the cool air.
These cold nights are wonderful for dreams,
I often wake and turn to stay warm.
With this constant coming to consciousness in the night it is easier for me to remember my dreams.
These were the nights that I best remembered dreams, and the messages
they had for me.
The next morning we climbed back up to where the car was and dropped off most
of our belongings in the car. We loaded up a “day” pack and headed down
a trail that left from the same parking lot.
We snaked down through the formations taking a handful of different trails leading
us to Sunrise Point.
The coolness from the night before still hung in the air a little.
When you were standing in the sunshine, the energy of it chased away the chill.
But as soon as you stepped into the shade of the massive rocks,
the cooled air started needling its way through the layers of clothing.
The expansive views were amazing.
There was simply too much to absorb in the short amount of time we were going to have.
We knew a storm was rolling in, so I wanted to see as much of it as we could while we still
had sunshine. And I wanted to get as many pictures as possible to remember our time here!
We were not let down, while the light lasted it was amazing on the red rock.
You would often get a glimpse of the trail snaking around a hoodoo,
or a corner. In the picture above you can see one of the arches that we got to walk through.
Many of them were man made, blasted through the stone.
They were sure fun to walk through!
Stepping through them you were transported to another world.
A moment of darkness and then there you are,
enveloped in a warm glowing scene.
What planet have I been transported to?
The clouds announced their presence.
For a while it looked as if they might just decide to stay on the horizon,
to not intrude on our lovely sunshine.
And they did wait very patiently while I snapped photos of the ever changing scene.
I think the above photo is my favorite from our time in Bryce.
There is just something about it that truly captures the whole essence of what I felt
while we were there.
The colours, the textures, the energy!
The terrain that we covered along these trails was so varied,
it is amazing how completely different the erosion is from one area to the next,
and within such a close area.
On past trips to this area we had both wanted to get off the rim and explore the trails that
were visible below the view points.
It was wonderful to finally have the chance to do it!
And then as we started our climb back toward the rim,
the clouds started to rise into the sky.
Faster, and faster.
Here they come!
It was almost like an ancient army, waiting patiently at a border.
Their opponent, the sun was strong, they knew this, and so they waited.
Patiently they waited. It had to be just the right moment.
Go! They make their move.
They swarm across the sky!
They come with their full force!
Wind and hail a blazing, Lightening blasting through the sky.
It was an intense feeling being on the rim of the canyon as it rolled through.
The storm people moved fast!
All life on the rim,
People and animals,
seemed to retreat to the safety of their various shelters.
We were in it, experiencing it.
For a moment I ran in fear, not liking being one of the tallest beings,
Then I ran with it, celebrating it, embracing it.
And then I stood with it.
I watched as the storm rolled across the landscape.
Thunder and Lightening celebrating its advance as it moved over and around the landscape.
Zion National Park ~ Front Country
So after our 4 night cross park hike, we drove to St. George Utah,
and bought me new shoes, and loaded up on groceries.
After spending the night next to the river in a free “campground” we made
our way to the main entrance of Zion.
I wanted to do the “tourist” version of Zion also.
So we parked at the visitors center and jumped on their free shuttle.
We stopped first at the Zion Human History Museum.
It talked of the Native Americans, and then the White settlers that came through.
(What an AMAZING place to have a homestead!)
I can’t help but dream about what an area used to look like 100, 200 or 300 years ago.
What did it look like before White man got here?
My heart and soul wants to see it as it was when the Native Americans lived here.
I want to be immersed in it before there were roads, buildings, signs and cars.
We have become so separated from nature that now even when we take our
vacations in “nature” we have to be able to drive right into the middle of it.
We often have paved paths, and signs warning us what a treacherous place this nature is!
(signs warning of this, and stay off of that, and of course don’t do that!)
My mind, body and soul get wrapped up in being bombarded by the current
human impact, but I try to often transport myself to a place where
all I absorb is the nature that is left in between the deep grooves of society’s fingerprint.
The Virgin River is the shaping force of the Valley.
And what an amazing scene it has sculpted.
The Valley walls are amazing, the red rock hovers above you at every turn!
Next stop was Emerald Pools.
We hiked up to the Lower and Middle Pools.
This is the waterfall that falls from the middle to lower pools.
It makes a lovely spattering sound.
Even with the developed trails to these sites, and the immense amount of traffic they
get each year, you can still feel natures raw beauty.
We had no plan of what we wanted to do when we arrived in the Valley,
so we were simply moving toward what ever drew our attention.
What better place to go for inspiration than Angels Landing?
This was the beginning of my new path.
To let my mind, body and soul fly free!
So we started our climb.
The beginning of the trail is cut into the side of the steep red rock.
Beautiful craftsmanship went into cutting red rock into perfect squares and stacking
them as walls to keep the trail on the side of the hill.
Even some blasting so that the trail could snake even deeper into the side of the hill.
We got to the top of the first climb.
Several people were sitting at this point, some simply resting before moving on,
others with a weary look on their face as they looked up the trail,
resignation tattooed upon their features.
Without a pause we moved up the next part of the trail.
As you can see from the above picture it snaked along a knifes edge.
I loved to watch each person walking this part of it.
Some moved along with no effort, truely enjoying the journey along this unique trail.
Others inched and crawled along, but they were doing it!
I celebrated each step for them, because they were pushing through that fear to make it to where
the Angels dwell!
I felt good along my journey, fear that would have been there in the past,
perhaps even a week before were melting away.
Once in a while I would look down to see the ground next to me plummeting to the valley
floor, and a wave of fear would pass through me.
But I embraced it and would take a moment to stop and study the sheer drop next to me.
I marveled at the immense beauty of the place I was,
the unique formation that was this fin we were climbing out, and wondering
how the river shaped it.
All along the journey I was truely humbled.
How is it, for how small we are, how miniscule of a being,
we have managed to take over the earth?
We have explored almost every corner of this earth, and managed to manipulate most of it into
a “Resource” to be used.
How have we become so separated from our dear mother?
Even many of those that took this beautiful pilgrimage to the aptly named Angels Landing
took only a moment or two to look around, and then turned right back around.
I do understand that sometimes it is the journey that is the greatest undertaking for a person.
But how could one not spend hours, days, weeks on top just admiring the wonder of each nuance
in front of you?
I felt that our mere 2 hours on top was no where enough time to actually absorb what
was surrounding me.
I could have spent months up there and still not have seen, heard, smell or feel everything.
Here is one without me blocking the beautiful view. We were out on a fin that had this kind of view
almost all the way around us. It is just spectacular!
Almost everywhere you went on Angels Landing you were standing at the edge
of a cliff face. I really do not know how this fin was shaped the way it was.
I am endlessly fascinated by how nature shapes her landscape.
A true Artist!
While we were sitting on top of Angels Landing we saw many different people come up.
Some would stop for a little bit,
others would snap a couple pictures, catch their breath, and head back.
A lady and man sat near us for a little bit, and at one point she said
“Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a zipline from up here?”
Wow, what a way down that would be!
After an amazing sitting with the Angels
(and a few begging chipmunks)
We started our journey back to the bottom.
We did a couple more stops along the shuttle route, enjoying the rest of the Tourist
experience. And then made our way back to the car.
The evening light is truely magical on that red rock!
Zion entertained us for about a week.
The next day we explored around Springdale (I looked around the shops like a good tourist)
And then drove through the park one last time on our route toward Bryce Canyon National Park.
Zion National Park ~ Backcountry
Hi Everyone! We are back and settled into home.
Bernie sorted through our pictures and selected 250 of our favorites.
This is far too many to share in one post, so I will split it into the different areas we got to visit.
Technically our first stop of the trip was Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
I did not include any photos from this stop because it was cloudy the whole time we
were there, and none of them are overly stunning.
After two nights in Great Basin we drove to the northern entrance to Zion NP,
Kolob Canyon.
After talking to the rangers for a few minutes we decided to do a 4 night backcountry
hike across the park and back. This was not a trip we were planning on but Zion has been
an area I have always loved, and this would give us a chance to explore it in a whole
new way.
Our first two days of the trip across the park were cloudy, as can be seen in the above photo.
Our journey would take us down La Verkin Creek Trail, Hop Valley Trail, Wildcat Canyon Trail
the West Rim Trail, and then back along the same route.
As we moved into the early morning hours of our second night camping out the clouds
opened up and dumped rain on us. Now one of the greatest disadvantages of camping in a NP
is having to use established campsites. The thousands of people that pitch their tent on that
small patch of dirt over the years pack it into a substance almost as impervious as cement.
Not to slowly the water built up into a small stream as it moved down the small
hill that led straight to our camping spot.
I flipped on my headlamp and found an adequately pointed stone to start my miniature ditch
system. Water started to stream under our groundcloths (which is but a thin layer between the
ground and our sleeping bags). My little ditches gradually grew into a system that drew
the water down and around our tarp.
Finally satisfied with the path of the water I looked down hill from our tarp at the other
“camp spot” and said a little prayer of thanks as I witnessed all the water from the surrounding area
creating a small lake where we had first pondered setting up camp.
Once my feat of engineering removed the risk of flooding I enjoyed listening to the waves
of rain beating against our little green tarp.
Right after dawn the clouds released one last deluge of rain and hail, as if it were
throwing a hissy fit knowing that clear skies were moving in.
And then there they were! Clear blue skies!
The temperatures were lower than I had expected for our journey through the southwest,
but the beauty was amazing!
I am endlessly fascinated by all the different layers of rocks. The textures, colours, and
shapes are amazing. The beauty of nature is so often missed in our society.
If I could share one thing with everyone in the US, it would be to stop and truely see the amazing
beauty, energy, peace, and wonder that nature holds.
I never fail to be amazed by the energy of Red Rock Country. It instills the very
essence of nature into your soul.
Zion wrapped me in a very strong inspirational grasp. It was the perfect start
to our trip. Our backcountry hike provided me the opportunity to reflect on
what I have been doing lately, and what I want to do with my future.
The nights provided me with very vivid dreams sharing great insights.
The days were filled with amazing grand vistas, inspiriting ones soul to re-connect
with our mother earth.
There were a few points along the trail that were not filled with grand vistas. These moments
were the times to enjoy the little details that fill each moment.
We also filled these moments with talks of life, the small and large of it.
The beauty of experiencing the grand adventure of Being Human.
It is amazing how sunshine can transform a landscape. When we had first crossed this spot
grey clouds filled the sky. There is still a vast beauty to the area,
but the energy has a little more of a subdued feeling.
As we re-traced our route everything seemed to glow from within.
An old dirt road carried us back into Hop Valley.
My sandals decided to do a little bit of self destruction half way through our trip,
although it was a bit inconvenient that they decided to come apart in the middle of a hike,
I decided it was a sign that I was starting a new path in life.
I did still use the sandals for part of the hike, but I also took the opportunity to use my
moccasins. What a beautiful way to connect even more with the earth.
With a thick slab of rubber between your feet and ground it is easy to plow forth, ignoring
what lies upon your path. When a thin piece of leather is all that is between your feet and mother earth
you are able to feel your surroundings instead of insulating yourself from them.
I could feel the mud push up against the soft leather of my moccasins,
almost as if it was squishing between my toes.
The leather truely feels as if it is a second skin.
I was amazed at all the different directions that some of the rock layers took.
The movement of the earth frozen in time and then slowly revealed, as if a big red curtain
was being drawn away over the millenia.
I have to admit I was a little smitten with rocks on this trip.
Above you can see a couple of the cows that lived in Hop Valley.
On all our hikes across the country we have seen many free range cows.
Cows in all kinds of habitats.
I have to say these cows have the most scenic place to live of all the grazing lands we have seen.
And they have truely adapted to their surroundings.
As I walked pass a cow, talking to her as I went (something I often do with all kinds of animals) I followed
her gaze up the “cliff” above her.
There I saw my first rock climbing cow.
This might sound out there, but I have never seen a cow that had climbed up such a steep incline.
The first one we witnessed up there was a partially grown calf. He was poking around in
the brush. After admiring his climbing capabilities we turned to continue on and suddenly heard
a loud crash behind us. I turned around expecting to see a calf in a pile of rocks,
but no, he held fast to his spot, not even a hint of being flustered.
Hmm, rock climbing cows, its a whole new breed.
La Verkin Creek had a particularly beautiful scenic bend. I loved how the
water had worn down through the rock in this one spot. The sound of the cascade was
mesmorizing, and the view breathtaking. A beautiful place to reflect on our 4 night backcountry
journey across the park.
Well everyone, that is my story of our first leg of an amazing journey!
I hope you enjoyed it!
