Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Bryce Canyon National Parks and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

First, I'd like to start off with an observation I have made traveling across country. It has to do with haystacks. For some reason, this fascinates me. It appears that haystacks in the Midwest are rolled into tight balls and then covered by some semi-transparent lining that holds it all together. We noticed this passing through Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. The same holds true for South Dakota except that they are located/deposited on the sides of the road. For what purpose, I don't know, but can guess.

In Wyoming, the hay is piled into huge mounds that have no particular shape; they are just big. I don't know how the cow eats them. Does he start at the top and work his way down or vice versa? Now, in Utah, the hay is stacked very  neatly in rectangular shapes. Does this have something to do with the personality of the farmers, state agricultural laws, the effect of the moon on the earth's gravity? IF you know, please straighten me out.

Now, on to the National Parks. Southern Utah is one huge national park divided into 5 separate entities. I already talked about Arches. Canyonlands is located in the same vicinity, about 30 miles outside Moab, Utah. In Canyonlands, you observe nature's majesty from above, viewing the work of water, wind, and ice erosion on these gorgeous, multi-colored sandstone formations from above. I've been told that much of this beauty comes from the efforts of the Colorado River, slowly eroding the earth's surface. The sandstone that exists can be pale yellow, pink, orange, red, purple, gray, salmon, or beige, depending on the minerals deposited within them. Sometimes they are a combination of these colors swirled into one beautiful formation. Apparently, all this sand once existed as an inland sea that later dried up and was then pushed, folded, and raised into the dramatic scenery we see today.

Capitol Reef, is more of the same, but different. It is an artist's palate of shapes and colors. In the middle of the park there are remnants of a Mormon farming community called Fruita. From the late 1800's until 1968 Mormon farmers grew fruit trees and farmed the small town that no longer exists. You can still see a wooden, one-room schoolhouse, a tiny sandstone home that held 15 people, and the fruit trees that are still used to make and sell pies. This land was formed millions of years ago by a giant folding of the earth's surface called a waterfold. Stephen and I decided to venture down to the more rugged part of the park by driving down some pretty rough dirt roads. At one point we had to cross a series of switchback cliffs on the side of a mountain. Stephen is terrified of heights, but handled it white knuckles and all!

Returning to our trailer we crossed the Grand Staircase Escalante. As you guessed it, there were again amazing cliffs, canyons, slot canyons, and sandstone formations. Every turn of the road brings more amazing viewpoints. The sandstone is set off by the desert plants, juniper, pinyon pine trees, and aspens that displayed their bright yellow fall plumage and "quaking" leaves.

Today was our day to visit Bryce Canyon. This is a creamscyle canyon comprised of weathered formations called hoodoos. I took a short hike into the canyon, but was lea

canyons seen from above in Canyonland

looking through Mesa Arch in Canyonlands

More canyons

aspen trees

Captiol Reef

Capitol Reef cliffs

Bryce Canyon

Large Hoodoo

Aspen changing color in the fall

ry to complete it since I had to hike right back out. As usual, I will post just a few of my hundreds of photos taken in these locations.

By the way, I neglected to tell you about our Extreme 4X4 jeep tour in Moab. A young, adventurous man drove us for 3 hours on the petrified sandstone rocks and cliffs. We scaled them at 75% inclines, drove through tubs of water, roller coasted up and down the landscape at incredible angles, slopes, and declines. A lot of fun!