Sunday 14 October 2012

Blog 243

Photographs taken in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, 21 May 2012

Canyonlands is a wilderness of countless canyons and fantastically formed Buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. Rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers themselves. These areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, but each offers different opportunities for sightseeing and adventure.

Monitor and Merrimac Buttes
Shafer Canyon Overlook With Shafer Trail Road
Mesa Arch
Panoramic view through Mesa Arch towards the La Sal Mountains
View from Buck Canyon Overlook
Zoomed in view from Buck Canyon Overlook, La Sal mountains in the distance

Blog 242

Photographs taken in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah 19/20 May 2012

Located in south-central Utah near Torrey in the heart of red rock country, Capitol Reef National Park is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, domes and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline (a wrinkle on the earth) extending almost 100 miles.



The Fruita Schoolhouse opened by Mormon settlers in 1896, closed in 1941 due to declining enrolment

Photographs taken in Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, 20/21 May 2012

We discovered a landscape of contrasting colours  landforms and textures unlike any other in the world. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, in addition to hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins and giant balanced rocks.

Three Gossips
Balanced Stone (note the people to the right to give scale to the stone)
Tower of Babel and The Organ (note my companion standing to the left front of the formation)
Delicate Arch 65-foot (20 m) tall (note my companion standing to the left of the formation)
Fiery Furnace is a collection of narrow sandstone canyons