Pic of the Day

Cedar Breaks National Monument. So stunning. 

Pic of the Day

Capitol Gorge in Capitol Reef National Park. Really cool. 

Four States at Once!

When I was in sixth grade, my English teacher Mrs. Mann told us about a trip she had taken to the southwest, and about this neat place where four states touched. Ever since then, I've been slightly obsessed with going to that spot for myself. After doing some research on the site, located on Navajo tribal land, I had to adjust my expectations, because many reviews weren't that nice.

Yes, it seemed tourist trap-y, but it also was providing much-needed support to the local economy. So I paid my three dollars and parked.

Here's what it looks like:

And here's me, standing in all four states at once. (After I got home, a saw a snap on Flickr of a girl who sat criss-cross applesauce in four states at once...so, yup, one day I'm going to have to go back and do that).

I had many other fun Southwest adventures on this day, but the Four Corners needed its own spotlight.

Moab, Utah in Pictures

Moab, located on the Colorado River as it cuts across the Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah, has been the setting for over fifty movies and television programs, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Thelma and Louise, and Con Air. As you turn off I-70 to head south towards the town, it's easy to see why. Brilliant red rocks glisten everywhere you look.

I stayed at the Moab KOA, which was pretty nice except for the bathrooms. (I've noticed that if a campground has mixed-gender single bathrooms, they're usually disgusting, which was the problem at this KOA). The town itself is cute, with a few main streets of shops and restaurants-my favs were the Moab Brewery and La Hacienda. It also has an amazing public library with WiFi that is a great place to beat the mid-afternoon heat.

But the big draw in Moab is the outdoors. Two national parks, Arches and Canyonlands, are basically right in Moab, as is easy access to the Colorado and tons of mountain biking trails. I stuck to hiking and photography, but I'd like to go back one day to get out on the river and also to go off-roading in Canyonlands.

It's hard to choose a favorite: both of these parks have amazing views and cool rock formations. (Both are also definitely in the desert and require proper hydration). At Canyonlands' Island in the Sky District, the visitor center is small but has some informative exhibits. I also got the chance to hear a really great ranger program about the geology of the area. I headed into Arches later in the afternoon in order to get some shots of the rocks during the evening golden hour. Here are several of my favorite:

Canyonlands: These shots are all from overlooks near the VC and along the Grand View Point road.

Arches: So gorgeous. I literally drove around with my jaw dropping.

Park Avenue:

Balancing Rock:

Delicate Arch: A flash flood washed out the road to the Delicate Arch viewpoint just before I arrived in the park, stranding dozens of people until the waters receded late that night. A very helpful ranger told me where I could find an old-fashioned can-on-a-stick aimed at the arch. The shots aren't the best, but at least I was able to see. I also met a really nice British couple and was able to share the secret.

Double Arch: A short trail leads right up underneath the arches (some people were even climbing on them). The desert is surprisingly fragile; a biological soil crusts forms every where there aren't green plants. This crusts helps retain water and prevent erosion and is so fragile that it can take anywhere from 20 to 250 years for the crust to recover if it is crushed by a careless footfall. (Soapbox moment: It breaks my heart when I see people disregarding warning signs about environmental issues like this. It may seem fun at the time to venture off trail, but if everyone did it, soon the desert will be irrevocably altered). 

Amazing well-preserved petroglyphs near the Delicate Arch trail head:

The Delicate Arch Trail: I didn't have enough water or a flashlight with me to attempt this, but it's definitely on my list for a return trip to Moab:

Fiery Furnace:

Skyline Arch:

Best. Sunset. Ever.

The Light at the End of the Scary Road (Glenwood Canyon)

The Colorado River begins like most rivers, a trickle high up on a mountain pass, in this case La Poudre Pass in the Front Range of the Rockies. It descends some 10,000 feet as it races down the Colorado Plateau, seeking, as all good rivers do, the path of least resistance to sea level. (Too bad it doesn't actually reach the sea anymore, but that's a topic for a different post).

The Colorado River in its infancy, a mild-mannered little stream

It is possible to leave the western entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park and follow the course of the Colorado River all the way to Moab, Utah, just west of where the Colorado converges with the Green River on its journey towards the famed Grand Canyon. (Unless you're me, of course, and you get a little off-course for a while. But eventually you're forced back to the river to head west out of the Rockies and into the high, dry inter-mountain region.) 


But to do that, you have to go through the canyons cut by the river, with the river. Suspended over it, in fact, through Glenwood Canyon (click the link for pics, because I was too scared to stop and take any). There are over 40 bridges and tunnels and other crazy feats of engineering that make is possible for humans to drive this route, but if you're not expecting it (which of course I wasn't), I-70 in western Colorado can be a scary thing. At one point, you can clearly see that you're going west, somewhere below you are the eastbound lanes, and below that is the train, everything cantilevered above above the surface of the river. 


If I were in charge, I would have just gone around the mountains a different way. It was the creepiest feeling ever to be at the bottom of this towering canyon (which may not have been all that towering, but was definitely the deepest canyon I've ever been at the bottom of) with the river, which at least seemed raging, right there. No recourse if there was an emergency situation-earthquake, fire, random wildlife herd stampeding across the road-unless you were prepared to climb straight up the mountain. 


But like many situations in life, once you've passed through them and survived, you start to think to yourself, Hey, maybe I could do that again. And this time, since I know I won't be swallowed whole by towering canyon walls, chewed up and spit back out into the mighty river, maybe I could stop along the way and enjoy the scenery. Because for all its scariness, Glenwood Canyon is also spectacular, especially to a sea-level-dweller like me. 


The best part of all is that after you leave Glenwood and squeeze through De Beque  Canyon, you head out onto a flat plateau with mountains rising in the distance all around you, the river now your cherished friend. Driving west through this country at the sunset golden hour was breath-taking.

Heading towards the mesas of Arches & Canyonlands country, just off of I-70

Until I realized that I'd better hurry the heck up and get to civilization-which in these parts is limited to Moab, Utah-before scary, nocturnal desert things started crawling around the road. But that's a story for tomorrow...

Pics of the Day: July 20-22

July 20- Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. This formation is part of the Fiery Furnace.

July 21-This is Cliff Palace, one of the largest cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. Ancestral Puebloans (also called Anasazi) lived here from about 1200-1300 AD.

July 22- The first picture is from Newspaper Rock at Petrified Forest National Park. These are petroglyphs left by the ancient Puebloans of the Puerco Pueblo. It is so amazing that they survive in such detail after all this time. The second shot of my foot may not look like much, but it's actually me standing in Colorado, Arizona, Utah & New Mexico all at the same time, at the Four Corners Monument  on the Navajo Nation lands.