Birds, Copper, Bison

 After Denver, I was headed for Rocky Mountain National Park. On the day I was going to go there, they got three feet of snow. Nope, change of plans – too much snow for me. My next stop was going to be the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. It turns out that it was too early in the season for any RV parks to be open. Again – change of plans. I looked at a map, closed my eyes, pointed my little finger at the map and decided that Salt Lake City was where I was going. 

Seven Months On The Road - What? It's Done Already?

 The Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River, flows through the Flaming Gorge. The Flaming Gorge was given it's name due to the spectacular red sandstone cliffs that surround this part of the river. In 1964, the Flaming Gorge Dam was finished and created a reservoir that is about 90 miles long. Located in both Wyoming and Utah, the gorge is a major recreation area for fisherpeople, rafters and hikers. There happens to be a scenic drive that surrounds the reservoir (lucky for me).

Arches

The park lies atop an underground salt bed that is responsible for all the formations of Arches National Park. Salt under pressure is unstable. “The salt layer shifted, buckled. liquefied, and repositioned itself, thrusting the rock layers upward as domes,and whole sections fell into the cavities. “  There is one road that goes through the park, it is about 18 miles long. There are a lot of turnouts where you can stop and check the view out. The parking lots at the trailheads were always very full but I think the parking gods were looking out for me and I almost always found a parking spot.

This was absolutely my most favorite arch in the whole park. 
It is called, of course,  Double Arch

Pine Tree Arch (see the little Pine Tree underneath the arch?)

Balanced Rock

Tunnel Arch

Landscape Arch
They say that somebody mixed up the names between Landscape Arch and Delicate Arch. 
Delicate Arch is that big thick arch that is on the Utah license plates, it is a big honker. 
As you can see Landscape Arch is very delicate

I have to say that I've never seen so my bicycles in my life.  Evidently Moab (the town closest to Arches) is known for being a biking mecca.  There is a whole system of trails throughout the whole region.  You could ride for days and never see the same trail twice.  Moab was a town that definitely catered to the outdoor enthusist.  

I was surprised to see that Utah decorates for Halloween

My original plan was to stay in this part of Utah for several more weeks and then slowly start heading south. I just heard that there is a cold front moving in and the low is supposed to be 19. I know I'm from Minnesota and we scoff at low temps but 19 is a bit much for me. I'm heading south, wimp that I am, tout suite. I only checked out two of the Mighty Five, but that just means I will have to come back.

The night before I left, I picked up a couple of hitchhikers. I was sitting on the couch and I heard this really loud scratching behind a wall. After ruling out ghosts, zombies and other nefarious creatures, I figured I had mice. Luckily I was equipped with mouse traps and peanut butter. I put the trap in a drawer the backside of which was open to the underbelly of the camper. Not more than twenty minutes later, the trap went off. I opened up the drawer and there was a mouse, but not a mouse like anything I had ever seen. It was twice as big as a Minnesota house mouse, had very big ears and super big eyes. I felt bad for the mouse, but it was him or me. I set the trap again because they always say if you have one mouse, there are bound to be more. One half hour later, the trap went off again. This mouse was not in the trap, I think the trap just sort of stunned him. He was still alive and by the time I had gone to the bedroom to get my ski gloves to grab him with, he disappeared. Set the trap again, waited another half hour and the trap went again. This time there was a victim. I've set the trap several times since then with no results so I am officially calling my rig mouse free.

The Canyons

Onward into Utah and the Mighty Five – National Parks that is.

I found a nice little BLM campground called Horsethief Campground north of Moab. It was my first back-in site on this trip and I had to back in on my blind side. It wasn't pretty, but I got 'er in. It is a great location, I'm 15 minutes from Canyonlands NP and about a half hour from Arches NP. No hookups, but my solar is working great. When I got here on a Sunday there were still a few sites left. The campground has been full every night since then. Every morning, there is a parade of new campers trolling the roads through the campground looking for a site. You walk outside and there will always be somebody asking if you are leaving.

My Campsite

I thought I would start with going to Arches first. I get there fairly early, at least for me, around 10 a.m. and the park was full, they were not letting anybody in. Where are all these people coming from? Quick change of plans and headed for Canyonlands. I decided my new plan of attack would be to do Canyonlands in the morning and Arches in the late afternoon.

Canyonlands is huge.  There are actually three sections - Island in the Sky, Needles and the Maze.  I concentrated on Island in the Sky.  It is the most developed of all the areas.  I did several hikes in the area, the most fun was the one up Whale Rock.  Whale Rock is this huge rock outcrop.  When you look at it from a distance, it looks like a giant whale.  When you get to the top, there are views for miles.  I used to really dislike cairns - cairns are mounds of stones that people build to show where the trail goes.  I used to think they were just people messing with the landscape and I wished they would leave Nature alone.  Now I am grateful since these cairns have, more than once, shown me the way I needed to go.  I used them extensively at Whale Rock.

Guess What!!  Canyonlands has an Arch

The View From Mesa Arch

Another pointy tower

I guess this is why they call it Canyonlands

On the road to Canyonlands, there is Dead Horse Point State Park.  This is a pennisula of land, part of which overlooks Canyonlands.  The legend goes (and sensitive readers might want to skip the next paragraph):

"The point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa.  Cowboys rounded up these horses and herded them across the narrow neck of land onto the point.  The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush, creating a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs.  The cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and, for reasons unknown, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point, where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River 2,000 feet below. "

There is an excellent trail that goes around the rim of this penisula. The views were some of the best I've seen in Utah.   I hiked with a woman, Kat, who was visiting from Denver.  It is amazing how fast the miles go when you are talking to an interesting someone.  

The white area in the picture are Potash Evaporation Ponds.
Potash is a potassium-containing salt used in farm fertilizers.
They pump it up from below the Earth's surface into these ponds. 
They add blue dye to speed the evaporation process which leaves behind the Potash
 

Colorado River