Today was an awesome day of seeing nature at its finest. I got up early and headed west towards Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. West of about Fruita, Colorado it gets pretty desolate and more so as you cross into Utah. There once again were no towns and no rest stops even on the interstate. There was one pit toilet stop on the interstate which I was pretty glad to see after my morning coffee :-) It was about a 120 Mile drive and the scenery became more desolate and then more dramatic as I neared the national parks. There was a sign along the road that said watch for eagles on roadway. I didn't see any. I had been worried about getting into Arches National Park because of the crush of people it's been experiencing lately. It's a fairly small National Park and they've been closing the gates and not letting any more visitors in after about 9:00 a.m. because the line forms all the way out to the highway. I was very lucky that I had only one car ahead of me as I entered the National Park. I got to use my national Park annual pass that Mallory got me for Mother's Day.
Arches National Park is beautiful and I said wow a lot as I was driving. I brought the dogs with me because it's been so hot I didn't want to chance the air conditioner stopping in the trailer since I was going to be gone all day. Dogs are allowed in the park but they're not allowed on any of the trails or any of the walkways to see The Arches so I could only photograph what I could see from the road or from the turnouts. I will put a few of the pictures that I've taken from my phone and when I get better wi-fi I'm going to post the ones that I used my Nikon for.
This is where the dogs shed I had a picnic lunch.
And then I was going to head back to Palisade so I could get ready for heading back home tomorrow morning. But darn it if I didn't see the sign that said Canyonlands National Park was only 20 or 27 miles from the highway I was on. I couldn't miss a national park being that close. I am so glad I made the drive over there. It is a majestic Park. I watched a thunderstorm form as I was driving toward the park and it stayed south of where I was. The pictures really don't do this park justice. You can't see the colors. What amazed me at both of these national parks was every time I got out of the car to look and to photograph I was mostly struck by the silence. It was pure silence. There weren't even birds. And what I noticed more at Canyonlands National Park was the overwhelming fragrance of pine when I would
get out of the car. I'm pretty sure the trees were junipers and they were so fragrant. I didn't go all the way through Canyonlands because I needed to get back but I would certainly like to see it again. Here's some pictures of that Park.
Comments
Post a Comment