Southwest USA Trip - September 2015: Day 4 - Natural Bridges and Canyonlands National Parks

Well, sometimes, even our best laid plans can change and take a new turn. In this case, work travel has interfered with personal travel plans for this weekend and as a result, my buddy from Logan couldn't drive down to join me this weekend. But I've still got plenty planned and today was no exception.

I started out the morning making my way from from Blanding, UT over to the Natural Bridges National Park. It consists of a loop that you slowly travel around with many different stops along the way to specific natural bridges formed through the rocks slowly over time. It's was pretty amazing to see and you can see some of the pictures I've posted below.

On my way out and back towards Blanding, I followed the signs to a site of Indian Ruins. This was just a little stop along the route and when I arrived, it was setup with portions of the ruins under pavilions to help protect them from the elements, which I thought was pretty cool. You can see those pictures as well below this blog.

After leaving, I came across an older gentlemen pulled over the side of the road with all his stuff piled out beside his Jeep. Keep in mind that you're lucky to see a car every 15-20 minutes, if not longer, in some of these areas as you're pretty much out there. And I know if that had been me, I would certainly have appreciated someone stopping. So I stopped and helped him out with his flat tire. Turns out he lives in Colorado, just retired from IT working for Cisco, and is originally from Covington, TN, and went to Middle TN State. We had a good talk while we changed his tire. And as we were finishing up, a Utah Park Ranger actually pulled over to assist as well which was also good to see. It turned out to only be about a 30 minute detour and was a nice afternoon spent meeting a couple nice folks.

Anyway, after the tire dilemma, I headed North from Blanding to Canyonlands National Park. This was my first time to both Natural Bridges and then to Canyonlands. And I must say, I really enjoyed the scenery leading into Canyonlands and then all the sites within the park. I would highly recommend visiting Canyonlands if you ever get the chance. As you know by know, I take plenty of pictures so I have more than enough to represent my trip through Canyonlands. The park also consists of a huge loop that will eventually bring you back around to the Visitor Center and Entrance/Exit.

Many of the stops contain trials that you can also walk along to take you further up to locations which offer even more photo opportunities. So let's just say I did my share of hiking today and a few in particular required me to hike up to the top of some large rocks in order to get a good view. But it was fun and thankfully the hiking boots I'm wearing have come in very handy.

Overall, it was about 30 miles or more down a paved road to reach the entrance to Canyonlands once you turned off the main road. But once you start driving back there and see how everything starts to change around you, you understand why its so far off the beaten path.

About half way to Canyonlands, you come upon a turnoff to see what is called Newspaper Rock. It is a huge rock wall on the face of a large bolder that has figures all etched in Sandstone dating back to anywhere from B.C. to 1300 A.D. I captured a shot of the panel that explains it but you can Google it to learn more. I've always found ruins or artifacts like this and those of the Indian Ruins very interesting. Another example in the area is the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings by Cortez, CO. I didn't stop there this time as I've already got plenty of pictures from previous trips but I would highly recommend seeing that too if ever in the 4 Corners/Cortez area. It has the cliff dwellings there of early Indian settlers and is worth the side trip from either Cortez or Durango.

So after I left Canyonlands, I headed further North and ended the day in Moab, UT. This is where I'll be tonight and tomorrow since it's a close launching point for tomorrow's visits to both Dead Horse Point State Park and Arches National Park. Then I can come back here and rest up before heading out towards my next stops.

By the way, I'm having the greatest time moving at my own pace and seeing everything I want to see. I'm always just in awe of all the natural beauty of the American Southwest and all the vast open spaces. Some people may just see a bunch of rocks and then more rocks and then more rocks, but I see formations in the mountains and the rocks that took millions of years to form and just find it all fascinating. So, pardon all the duplicate rock pictures but there's more to come as I still have many more places to visit and more rocks to photograph over the next week and a half. If it's any consolation, I also like to capture pictures that include some of the native plants and vegetation as well so you'll see some of those thrown into the mix or other pictures that also include native plants in the foreground.

For now, enjoy the pictures and again, thanks for following as that means you find maybe some of this remotely as interesting as I do. And if not, well that's okay too!