Salt Lake, Arches and Canyonlands

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The drive from Crane, Oregon to Salt Lake City, Utah was our longest day and travelled through the deserts of northern Nevada. Fortunately most of this journey was on the interstate which actually made it easier. For ages we thought that there were no trees in this part of Nevada and then we realised that what we thought were rocks up in the snow on the mountain ridges were actually pines - this seems to be the only place they can grow!

Just after the border with Utah we stopped at the Bonneville Speedway on the salt flats and saw a porshe and a corvette trying it out. It was pretty dark by the time we eventually arrived in Salt Lake City so we spent the night in a motel near the airport.

We headed off to Arches National Park that morning and arrived about 3pm and enjoyed the sunshine and the drive through the park to the campground. The next day was overcast but pretty warm so we set off to do some walks around the park starting off at the Devil’s Garden area and visited Landscape Arch, Pinetree Arch, Wall Arch and Navajo Arch and also walked up to Double O Arch. That walk was really neat because part of it required you to walk along the top of one of the fins - great views and was a more remote area. After Devil’s Garden we headed to the Delicate Arch walkway and walked up there for lunch. Was a really busy walk being Thanksgiving Weekend so was pretty crowded at the arch but still beautiful. Lastly, we went to the Windows section and did the walk to the North and South Windows, Turret Arch and Double Arch.

We then headed to Canyonlands National Park and watched the sunset at Green River Overlook and set up camp for the night. That morning saw us up very early with the hope of getting the sunrise at Mesa Arch but unfortunately there was too much cloud right over the sun. There was a large group of people there also and everyone had their tripods all set up - one guy had been there for an hour before the sunrise just to get a good spot! Was pretty funny 😊 After breakfast we went for a walk to Upheavel Dome - no one is totally sure what this dome represents - it is either an upwelling over a salt dome (there are a lot of salt tectonics in Utah) or the result of a meteorite impact. We also went to the Grand View Overlook before heading back on the road again towards Capitol Reef National Park.

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Comments

[Jonny]

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Nice work on the blog guys! Those arches are cool.