One final hike in Arches

We slept in the back of our truck at the Moab KOA so we could leave quickly on Saturday morning.  We were about an hour away from our destination, so we actually got up and left at 4:30 am!  Oh, was that early.  We arrived in the park just as the sunrise was starting to rise above the mountains.....

Here was our destination....landscape arch.  It was stunning in the morning light.  And, as you can see on the right side, it is getting very thin and one day will collapse.

Arches NP is a very interesting place.  I really enjoyed ending the trip where we began, in Moab.  An absolutely stunning end.  We drove all day and got really tired by the time we hit NE, so we decided to stop and tent camp in a major thunderstorm.  We got the tent up at 10:00pm and the rain & wind started about midnight and ended sometime before 5 am.  Other than feeling like I was sleeping in a car wash, we were totally dry and had a good sleep.

Favorite place in Zion

We drove to my favorite spot after leaving the ranch.  This place is just amazing.  There are all of these really thin layers of rock and they go every which way.  The very difficult part of this is walking around and setting up a tripod.  It is very, very steep.  I used my 24 TSE lens and it worked like a charm.

Zion - a quiet canyon with water

This is the area we went hiking in Zion.  We were hiking on the left side, back into the  mountain valley.  There is a system of 3 "emerald pools".  At the second pool, I noticed that there was noise coming from around the bend.  We scrambled along the rocks and came to a point with 2 waterfalls. 

This is a picture taken with my G11, to show you the two waterfalls.  They don't look like much in a little P&S camera.

How about these pictures?  I had brought along a tripod.  I have a polarizer on the front of my lens and a variable neutral density filter to allow for a long exposure, even in bright sunlight.  There were clouds every once in a while, so Darwin and I just sat there, all by ourselves in the middle of this little stream and took pictures.  It was lovely!

Another evening with the horses

This is the owner of the property.  Every night, he takes one of the horses out and lets it graze behind the restaurant.  I'm quite sure that it provides the dinner guests with a wonderful eating experience watching the little one play.  Guests then walk out and visit and/or pet the horses.  Good for everyone. 

Darwin's classmate Arwen.

A few evening shots with nice light.

Grand Canyon

It took FOREVER to get to the north rim of the Grand Canyon today.  We drove out to the point where you could see the Colorado River below.  That took FOREVER too.  Windy roads through a giant burn area was the scenery today.  So, as a result, I thought I should post a few GRAND pictures - click on one to have quite a panarama.  Taken with my TSE-24mm lens, handheld.

Angel's Landing G11

Here is another view from where we had lunch.  You can see the people climbing up the top of this sharp ledge.  I had both cameras along on this hike, that is why I've done two separate posts.

This is the Virgin river, which carved out Zion Canyon.  We were 1,000 feet up from the canyon floor.

This is the 2nd set of switch backs.  21 in all and I guess it was an engineering marvel when they did it.  It sure went straight up - and straight down for that matter.

These flowers were blooming along the trail.  I call them firework flowers.

Here is the blooming cactus which the hummingbirds love.

An evening at the resort

We had a relaxing evening "at home."  Took my camera as we walked to dinner.  Too bad I couldn't get a good shot of the hummingbird that was feeding off of the blooming cactus right outside our window.

Lunch near Angel's Landing

We hiked 1,000 feet up for lunch today.  We decided not to go the last 1/2 mile up to Angel's Landing.  Check out the left hand side of the pictures.  You'll see that cliff with dropoffs on both sides.  When you start this hike, it warns you that people have died falling off the cliff!

Here is a picture of the first few switchbacks.  There were 2 sets of these and they were very long... 

East Zion - Part 2

More from East Zion, including the "checkerboard mesa."

East Zion Part 1

This area is about 5 miles from our cabin, right inside the park.  It is layers and layers of thin rocks.  Linear and curves, it is something I've never seen before.

Moqui Cave

We stopped here this afternoon.  This used to be a bar and dance hall....yep, in a privately owned cave.  The man's grandfather had 6 wives & 55 children.  Wife #5 was the first elected female mayor of a town in the United States in 1914ish.  The men of the town were fed up with the women complaining....and their plan backfired.  An all women town council (the first) with a women mayor (the first) was the result. 

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

A hard and difficult climb.

Sand blowing down the dune.

We stopped by the Sand Dunes this morning.  Oh was that ever fun. 

This morning...

Here's how the early morning went today.  I woke up with the fire still going in the gas stove.....I looked out the window and couldn't believe it.  Yep, it snowed last night.  I woke Darwin up and told him that he had to look outside.  I handed him his glasses and he said, "that's just wrong" and then he rolled back under the covers.   Anyway, you now have a glimpse of what we see when we look out of our cabin.  The mountains, with the road, are the beautiful 10 mile east entrance into Zion.