One Blog- Four Parks cause we finally have Internet!!!!

Internet has been really scarce out here. We're in Moab, Utah now and have good 3G so we're catching up. 

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

When is a canyon not a canyon? When actually, it is formed when rain and ice soak into the porous sandstone, freeze, expand, and breaks away stone between stone forming amazing towers.

The hikes at Bryce go up and down and through these "Hoodoos" so you see the views from high up...

up closer.... ( This looks like a congregation waiting for the sermon don't you think?)

and directly across from you so you can almost touch them.

Some rock is stronger than others . This is call " the windows"

Bryce had endless great photo ops like these queens and their court. Each is a hundred or so feet high.

KODACHROME BASIN STATE PARK, UTAH

 We took a day trip to nearby Kodachrome State Park. It had totally different rock structures.

Doesn't this look like a cooking pot of some sort. Wonder what Mother Nature is cooking in there??

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK

We took the very curvy  Utah state highway 12 to go from Bryce to capitol Reef NP . A beautiful up and down and zig and Zag road. So, We're driving along and there are a bunch of  orange signs by the road with a picture of a cow. WE assume- ok look for wandering cattle. We come around a bend and this is what we see! There are more cows there than the photo displays.

We follow very slowly behind them  for a bit, then one of the teenage cowgirls rides over and tells us, "Just drive through, they'll move for you". We did, but the big cows didn't like us crowding the calves and quiet indignantly tried to block us off. They also pooped all over the road, which then got flung by the tires onto our truck and trailer. ICKY! and no campgrounds will allow washing of trailers!

Capitol Reef was beautiful with towering walls of rock but to be honest, we were hiked out so we took the scenic ride then relaxed at the campground before sharing dinner with an interesting Australian couple from the next site.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Arches was worth the travel. This is "Landscape Arch" 306 feet long--longer than a football field. In 1991 some Hikers were standing under the arch, they heard a CRACK, looked up, and ran for their lives. The 60 foot slab of arch is on the lower right of the picture.

This is Pothole Arch. If you can make out the people under it you can see how big it is. It was actually one arch and a huge pothole eventually wore it's way through forming 2 arches.

Gary's favorite godess of the outdoors at broken Arch!

There is no end to what the imagination can do with the shapes these rock take. P.S. the wind was so strong, no way could anyone keep a hat on!!

Delicate Arch required a bit of a climb . Check out the proportion to the family posing for a picture under it.

Just one more amazing erosion mountain (about 500 ft high) at Arches. Note the old house. Someone thought this spot was heaven and tried to live here. His new wife insisted on this cabin upgrade to one with a wooden floor.

Finally, this is the view from behind our trailer at our campsite at arches NP. Sometimes it's worth it to forego electricity and water hook ups!