Canyonlands and Arches National Parks

June 26-27 – Canyonlands and Arches National Parks

Everywhere you look in Canyonlands National Park and Arches NP, your imagination sees faces, animals, birds, objects, people you know, people you don’t know, Indians, monkeys, fish, dogs, cartoon characters, etc., etc..

Take the following image as an example

You might want to click on the image to enlarge it. I can see many faces in here. A dogs face, a monkey’s face (one of the ape men in Star Wars), a cartoon face with a bulbous nose, a famous artist whose name I can’t recall (he has a small moustache and a pointy goatee beard – Van Dyke?? - or maybe it is Don Quixote..), and Teddy Roosevelt with a bushy moustache, eyebrows and head of hair.  I can also see a roaring dinosaur, the Lion from Lion King, and a slinky little Honda S2000.

And this is just one section of rock, of which there are thousands here.

How about some of these:

A gang of Indians and squaws with papooses babies (what the heck is the plural of papoose?), jugs of water to their left....   Or is it King Neptune and some Vikings with jugs of wine??

An Indian nose and an Italian Roman nose (or is it a Roaming nose?)

3 Gossiping Women (The Park Service named this one)

See if you can find anything in this formation.. 

Here are two structures that the Park Service calls ‘The Monitor and the Merrimac’

I added the structure in front by the bush, so this picture is called ‘The Monitor, the Merrimac and the Mama’.

These National Parks both have lots of balancing rocks too.

and a Balancing Babe….

and Babes balancing Rocks

There are many Arches in addition to the balancing rocks. Here is a balancing rock and two arches named ‘The Windows’ – North and South.

Here we are in front of ‘Landscape Arch’.

Within the last few years Landscape Arch lost a big slab of rock from the underside, just on the right side where it gets so skinny. A sign there says  that another chunk will likely fall again soon, possibly causing a break in the arch.  I don’t think I would walk out onto this arch, but they have everything blocked off to keep all the ‘daring ninnies’ with a death wish from doing so.

We thought the Park Service guide said the hike in to see this was .2 miles (2/10 of a mile) so we were expecting a short hike. Sylvia went in with her hiking boots but didn't put on socks for such a short hike. Not a good move, considering that the walk ended up being almost a mile in and the same back out. She ended up with a big blister on her heel. No more hiking for her for a while….

Approaching Windows North and South, viewed from the road..

These two arches may look like they are close together, but they are not as close as they look. I hiked up to Windows North while Sylvia stayed at the car, nursing her wounded heel.

A closer view of the North Arch, or maybe it is Turret Arch. Too confusing to remember.

....and the South Window to the right, as seen from in front of the North arch. The temperature was about 102 degrees, and even though the humidity was way down around 5% (Yes, five, not fifty) it was still way too hot for me to hike over to this one. Besides, I didn't want to leave Sylvia alone too long, sitting uncomfortably in the car with the A/C on..

Here is a perspective shot of the same arch. There are two people walking in front of the arch, where I have inserted the arrows. You probably need to click on the picture to enlarge it to be able to see the people.

Here we are in front of yet another famous arch – So many arches so little time – Sorry, I'm not certain of the name of this one, but it might be Sand Dune Arch or Skyline Arch.

Now for a Photoshop Software Sample ‘Before-After’ shot – Here is the ‘Before’ -

And the ‘After’ – Now you see her, now you don’t…..

A more dramatic view through the arch

There are lots of colors in the rocks due to the various minerals in the soil/rocks when they were formed millions of years ago.  Sylvia wants me to take a sample of the ‘Tuscan Sun Red’ color, just above the light green patch, to Lowes so we can get some paint for the kitchen wall above our pantry………??   I don’t know where she comes up with this stuff….

Found some more ‘Dead Tree Art’ – I saw a Sea Horse in this one.

Some pink blooming cactus

And a close-up

Here is a shot of the picnic table where we had lunch between two large rock structures. That is Sylvia at the table, just to the left of the arrow, bottom center of the picture. Sort of allows you understand just how small

and insignificant we humans are....

 

No Comment – You make your own determination what you want to see in this one…