Blog 245

Monument Valley - Sunrise Tour 24th May 2012
We had to be awake at 3:30 am to be able to travel from our hotel in Kayenta to the View Hotel in Monument Valley to meet our Navaho guide Ray at 4:45. Ray is part of the Kéyah Hózhóní Navajo native american guiding company. Website here. He took us into the private areas and we drove in his pick-up for half an hour to where we could view the sunrise between the 450 feet high Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei meaning Navajo spiritual gods. It is located adjacent to the Totem Pole and is imagined as a formation of dancers emerging from a Hogan. I started to take these images just after 5:45am, the sun appeared at 6:10am.

Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei

Sunrise - Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei

Totem Pole, notice the outline of the native american head near the right base

Desert insect which just after it was seen it burrowed into the sand presumably to remove itself from the rising temperature.

Animal and reptile tracks.

Rattle snake tracks, our guide indicated that the rattler had past this way about ten minutes before we arrived

The Bog Hogan rock formation, looks like the outline of a Native American's head with flowing hair

Blog 244

Goosenecks

Located just outside of Blanding, Utah, four miles from highway 261 on county road 319.

On its way to the Colorado River, the sediment rich water of the San Juan river meanders through Gooseneck State Park, creating deep canyon chasms.  The park is only 10 acres and within that area, five miles of river flow in serpentine fashion to reach the Colorado River only 1 linear mile away.

Goosenecks

Bluff Utah

Bluff is a small town located in the San Juan River Valley in the south eastern corner of Utah. Located along U.S. Highway 191, Bluff is bordered on the south by the San Juan River and the Navajo Nation.

No white settlers called the Bluff valley home until 1878. Historic Bluff City was founded in 1880 by the famous "Hole in the Rock" expedition of Mormon (Latter-Day Saint) pioneers, whose mission was to establish an agrarian community on the San Juan River. The original fort and historic village of log homes was laid out with the church, school, and co-op store in the centre  and was surrounded by agricultural fields and orchards. Farming along the San Juan River proved uncertain, for the river either flooded or went dry too often for dependable irrigation.

Modern Bluff - Visitor Centre

Inside the Barton family cabin with earth sod roof

Covered wagon based on that used by the early settlers

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

Blog 241

Photographed on the journey from Torrey to Moab, Utah 20th May 2012

Factory Butte adjacent to U24

Rock formation adjacent to U24