SNOW IN CANYONLANDS

This morning we woke up to overcast weather and high winds. After a short drive we were in Canyonlands, a National Park since only 1971. Canyonlands is where the Green and the Colorado Rivers meet deep down in chiseled gorges. By the time we got to the Visitor's Center there was snow blowing sideways.

We decided this would not be a hiking day, so we did a driving tour. Unfortunately visibility wasn't great, but even with the fog and clouds it was apparent that this is a beautiful area.


The park has a totally wild area, called "The Maze" where apparently Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch hid out between bank jobs. Today it is still not reachable by car and is billed as being "for the extreme outdoor experience." We were driving in the most accessible and highest area, called "Island Sky." Many of the views were not visible without a short hike. It was just too cold and windy so we were happy with what we could see from the car.

After being skunked in Canyonlands we decided to hightail it into Moab, a short distance away, to get some decent coffee. Coffee at breakfast was totally inadequate and we were feeling very needy. Jim spotted a drive-through espresso place and we were on our way again. Thus fortified, we drove the few miles back out of town to Arches National Park.

The snow had subsided a bit but the wind was still howling so we did mostly a car tour of Arches. What we saw was totally awesome and we know without a doubt we will come back and spend weeks at this park.

Lots of the formations have names. This one is called "Three Gossips."



These are called "The Windows,"

this is "Balanced Rock,"



and these are the "Parade of Elephants."


The snow did give us some great views of the surrounding mountains.



We were able to see all these fabulous arches from the comfort of the car...




but had to hike a windy and cold 100 yards in order to see the famous Delicate Arch:

Obviously the rock formations are what people come to this park to see. What I wasn't expecting was the incredible palette of colors to be found in this part of the desert. It was truly impossible to capture in photos the array of color tones that roll through the plains between the formations.


The really neat thing about this park is that it is possible to walk to nearly all the arches and formations. Next time I am here I will be walking all over this park!



As we headed back out of the park the snow picked up again


and turned in to a near blizzard.

Considering the weather we were dealt today we felt very fortunate to have seen all that we saw and I was amazed at the amount of people who were camping and hiking in both parks we went to today. I was also amazed to learn that I took over 300 photos today!

Tomorrow: Dinosaurs and ancient ruins.

Audrey