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

Blog 240

Visited and photographed here on 17/18th May 2012

Bryce Canyon which, despite its name, is not a canyon but a collection of giant natural amphitheatres along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange, and white colours of the rocks provide spectacular views for visitors. Bryce sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet.

 

Detail in Bryce Canyon in early morning light

Blog 239

Visited and photographed in Zion National Park 16/17th May 2012

Zion National Park is located in the South-western United States, near Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile park is Zion Canyon, which is 15 miles long and up to half a mile deep, cut through the reddish and tan-coloured Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River.