Utah Trip - Heading Home

     Our travel day before we headed home sported some of the worst weather of the trip.  When we left Moab, it was overcast.  We hadn't traveled more than an hour when it started to rain.  On I-40 the precipitation changed to a driving snow as we crossed some of the higher passes on the interstate. What should have been a picturesque drive, featured white-out conditions in several spots.  It was still raining when we reached Cedar City, Utah, and fortunately our room was ready.  Not the most exciting day of our trip.
     Our last day in Utah was our longest.  Our flight was not scheduled to leave Las Vegas until almost midnight, so we had a lot of time to play.  We started the day by hiking in the northwest portion of Zion National Park.  This section of Zion, known as Kolob Canyon, has a brief scenic drive of 5 miles that ends at the mile long Timber Creek Overlook Trail which we hiked.

     From there we drove back down the road to the trailhead for the Taylor Creek Trail.  As a point of reference, it is probably better to visit Kolob Canyon in the PM, as the morning sun obscures views from the scenic highway as you look eastward and that;s where most of the dramatic rock formations are.

     The Taylor Creek Trail is a 5 mile round trip to the Double Arch Alcove.  The water level in the creek was up some due to the rains of the previous day, making hiking the trail more difficult as you were required to cross the stream 96 times, by my count.

The Double Cove Arch is huge and impossible to photograph as the trail leads right into the first alcove of the arch.  It was very impressive and we had it all to ourselves.  Again the benefit of being early morning hikers.  Here's a picture of me in the alcove which hopefully will give you some idea of its size.

     From Kolob Canyon, we had hoped to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument.  However, due to the amount of snow, the monument, which has the highest elevation of any National Monument, was not opened.  Therefore, we headed down to St. George, Utah, to visit the winter home of Brigham Young.  The St. George area is called the "Dixie" of Utah, as during the Civil War cotton was grown along the Virgin River.  The tour was interesting and only cost us getting our names on the Mormons list to receive a Book of Mormon.

      Our last visit of the day was made to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area just outside Las Vegas.  Here a 13 mile scenic drive loops through the high desert where a number of viewpoint and trailhead stops gives you some great views.  Including the Calico Rocks.

and Pine Creek Canyon and Ice Book Canyon.

     From here we went to the airport and had to wait an extra two hours before taking off at about 1:30 AM, making it an extremely long last day of vacation.

Utah Trip - Arches and Moab

Our last day in Arches was effected by the weather.  We again hit the trail early(a routine I would suggest using regular to any serious hiker wanting to see a National Park without massive crowds). Our first stop was at the Windows Section of the park where we saw

Turret Arch

North and South Windows(also referred to as The Spectacles from the side that this picture was taken)

and Double Arch(seen in one of the Indiana Jones movies)

From the windows section we drove to an area adjacent to the Campground and saw

Sand Dune Arch

From there we hiked a loop trail as it started to rain and saw

Broken Arch

The rest of the day was spent trying to avoid rain drops.  We explored the Colorado River Scenic Byway(Rt. 128) out of Moab.  The steep walled canyon gives something of a precursor of what the river will due a hundred miles or so downstream.

The city of Moab is a very tourist oriented place.  It is said to be the mountain biking capital of the US.  Within the city itself are a number of paved biking trails and outside the city are hundred of miles of trails including one that goes from Moab all the way to entrance road to Canyonlands.  In addition at the city's Visitor Center you can pick up a number of auto tour pamphlets - Native American Rock Art - La Sal Mountain Loop - Colorado Riverway.  We only scratched the surface of the things that could be done in Moab.  There is also a golf course.

  

                                                                  

Utah Trip - Arches National Park Day 1

     On the 10th day of our visit to Utah, we got up early to hike in Arches National Park. Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative as it rained.  We drove the scenic road in Arches to get the "lay of the land", but wound up back at the hotel.  After a refreshing A.M. nap, we headed back to the park for our first hike.  We started with a 2 mile round-trip warm-up on a trail named Park Avenue. 

The hike is on a dry river bed(which due to the morning rain was not as dry as it usually was) with towering rock formations on either side - hence the trail's name "Park Avenue".
      From our warm-up hike, we did the premier hike in Arches - the Devil's Garden Trail.  This trail, over 7 miles with all its side trails, takes you past at least 7 arches including Landscape Arch said to be the longest in the world over 300 feet in length.

After passing Landscape Arch the trail gets a little tricky passing along the rib of some very steep and narrow "fins".  While attempting to cross one of the fins, we got caught in a sleety downpour which made the rock incredibly slick.  The storm was short-lived and we made it through to Double O Arch.

Past the Double O Arch the trail is labelled as "primitive", but it was easy to follow with a couple of tricky spots and some interesting views.

We finished our first day at Arches with a 3 mile round trip hike to the "most photographed arch in the world" - Delicate Arch

Utah Trip - Canyonlands National Park

   After starting our day with the hike to Hickman Bridge in Capitol Reef National Park, we headed north and east to our next destination.  Canyonlands National Park is divided into three distinct section:  Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze.  We visited the Island in the Sky section which is a high plateau (5,000 feet in elevation) situated between the Green and Colorado Rivers.  After stopping at the Visitor Center, we took the scenic drive to the White Rim Overlook where a half mile hike brings you to the edge of the mesa.  The White Rim is a continuous layer of sandstone some 1,200 feet below the edge of Island in the Sky. Another 1,000 feet below the White Rim  are the rivers.

 From here we moved on to Murphy Point a 3.6 mile round trip hike that provides vistas of the Green River Canyon.

We also took a short hike along the rim of Upheaval Dome.  It is an interesting geologic feature whose origin is open to question.  Upheaval Dome is actually a huge hole in the earth.  One group of scientist believe that it was created by the collapse of an underground salt dome.  Another group believes that it may have been cause by a meteor striking the earth.  Either way it was an interesting hike.

Our last hike was to the Mesa Arch, which sits right on the rim of Island in the Sky.

As the arch sat right on the rim, this is about as close as I got to it.  Nan however, climbed up to get a look.  This time I gave her my camera.

From here we headed into Moab, Utah to spend the night.