We woke up early to get a good head start on the long driving day ahead. It is about two hours to Arches NP which is near Moab, UT. The CO/UT line is only about 25 minutes from Grand Junction so we were out on the long lonely road pretty early.
I have to get the obligatory state welcome sign photo but this one was a good one too!
Utah is the first state heading west.
We went along Route 70 for a while until we had the option to take a left turn on South 128 to get to Moab and Arches. The canyon we passed through was long and unbelievably scenic. If you have not had a chance to get out to this part of the country, you should.... it's like what I imagine the surface of mars looks like. The Colorado river is tan -- so much so that at times, it looks more like a dirt road. The canyons are so high and unusually colored. Mostly you see red, but sometimes the canyons have large swaths of black and white colors.
We went along Route 70 for a while until we had the option to take a left turn on South 128 to get to Moab and Arches. The canyon we passed through was long and unbelievably scenic. If you have not had a chance to get out to this part of the country, you should.... it's like what I imagine the surface of mars looks like. The Colorado river is tan -- so much so that at times, it looks more like a dirt road. The canyons are so high and unusually colored. Mostly you see red, but sometimes the canyons have large swaths of black and white colors.
I thought the "cave" on the top of this canyon was particularly interesting!
We stopped for lunch and gas in Moab then headed up into the National Park. We decided to take the whole drive north through the park then stop at the sights on the way back south.
See what I mean about the surface of Mars?
This is the world famous "Delicate Arch". Looks delicate but it's 52 feet wide. The Olympic torch passed through here on it's way to Salt Lake City for the summer games in 2002. You can hike closer to it but unfortunately... no dogs allowed. And we certainly could not leave them in the car in the 83 degree desert heat!
I thought the arches were cool but was also amazed by the other rock formations. This rock was made this way by water, wind and time.
This is another famous double arch -- made somewhat more famous by the photos of Steven Speilberg while filming an Indiana Jones movie here.
After a long day at Arches, we headed north back up to 70, then west until we got to Route 6 where we took a long north-westerly path to Salt Lake City. For the record, it's pretty hard (impossible for us) to get a meal in Price, UT at 8pm on a Thursday night. Just so you know...
No comments:
Post a Comment