Arches and Canyonlands

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update on our trip to Utah the weekend before last.

I was working in Salt Lake City so we took the opportunity to fly down on Friday night and go to the southern part of Utah to visit a couple of national parks there. It's amazing to see the changes in the scenery in the US; one minute your travelling through pine forest and the next it's just desert as far as you can see.

On Friday night we flew into Salt Lake and rented a small jeep 4X4. We drove to a place called Provo about 45 miles south of SLC and spent the night there then on Saturday we went further south to a town called Moab on the Colorado river. It was a very pretty place; lots of green amongst the red cliffs of the desert. There looks to be a million things to do there if you have the time; river rafting, rock climbing, 4X4 trips; mountain biking, parachuting... the list goes on.

From Moab you have easy access to two well known national parks; Arches and Canyonlands. Unfortunately the weather was really hot: +100F which made hiking around the parks a bit of a chore. We did as much as we could but next time I think it would be better to go in early spring or autumn.

Arches is famous for the arches carved in the rock cliffs by the wind and the rain. There is lots of spectacular scenery there and plenty of places to photograph. Some of the more well known spots are The Gossips, Balanced Rock, The Windows and Delicate Arch





Canyonlands is in sight of the Arches national park but is completely different. It is made up of hugh canyons formed by the tributaries that flow into the Colorado and Green Rivers. The Green River starts life up in Wyoming in the Grand Tetons (we've been there) and the Colorado starts up in the Rockies (been there too). The two rivers meet in Canyonlands and the Colorado flows on through the Grand Canyon to the gulf of Mexico.



We managed to do a bit of four wheel driving but we didn't venture too far; at over 100F we didn't want to get lost and there weren't always a lot of people about. Still it was good fun.

This weekend just gone we were in Sheridan playing in the Rio Tinto annual golf tournament; not great scoring but a lot of fun. Highlight of the day was Gae getting to put her name on the women's longest drive. Not bad for someone playing only her second round of golf and it was about the 11th hole so a lot of players had gone through before us. Unfortunately she was knocked off by the end but at least she got her name down.

Next weekend I'm going trout fishing in the Big Horn mountains. I'm off to a place called Lake Angeline which is 10,600 ft above sea level; it even has a small glacier feeding the lake. Sounds great and I'm really looking forward to it but the unfortunate part is that we have to walk from 6000 ft; hopefully i'll survive to write another blog.

Once again click on the photo below for more pictures of arches and canyonlands.

Arches and Canyonlands