USA Road Trip: Week 4 (Part 4)

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Yes, more rocks. We really will get to some lush scenery soon. But the American Southwest is mostly about deserts, rocks, geology and dry landscapes. The last three blogs (Grand Canyon et al, Zion et al, and Kodachrome et al), along with this blog, all took place within six days. We were taking so many pictures that we got to a point (more than once actually) where we put the cameras away because we were tired of taking all these pictures, just to take them back out five or ten minutes later and take more pictures. :-)

“Stark, exposed, and unforgettably spectacular, Arches National Park boasts the world’s greatest concentration of sandstone arches - more than 2,000, ranging from 3 feet to 300 feet, at last count” (Lonely Planet, USA, 2018, p. 885). Some formations were very strange. Delicate Arch is probably the most famous of these arches; it’s featured on the Utah license plate.

“Visit Arches to discover a landscape of contrasting colors, land forms and textures unlike any other in the world. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, in addition to hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins and giant balanced rocks. This red-rock wonderland will amaze you with its formations, refresh you with its trails, and inspire you with its sunsets” https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm.

We didn’t spend much time in Canyonlands National Park; we had spent a lot of time at Arches that day, it was getting late, we were about to get rained on again, and we had a long way to go that night. What we did see, though, reminded us of the Grand Canyon.

Another cool place to go in the area is Monument Valley Tribal Park (https://navajonationparks.org/tribal-parks/monument-valley/). We had just been there two years ago, so passed on it this time, but it’s an area really worth checking out. You’ve probably seen it in movies, if you’ve seen any John Wayne westerns, Easy Rider, or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Like the other parks in the Southwest, the colors of the rocks change throughout the day, depending on where (or if) the sun is shining, and what clouds may be present. You could see the same rock formation a few times throughout the day, and the color would never be the same.

And like the other parks in the Southwest, though, be prepared for crowds. “To avoid crowds, consider a moonlight exploration, when it’s cooler and the rocks feel ghostly” (LP, p. 885). We were in Arizona/Utah in mid-May, but it was tricky with our timing to see all the parks we wanted to: some parks weren’t fully operating yet (some roads were still closed because of snow), and we were already past “high season” at Death Valley (already getting too hot), but we wanted to see the parks before schools let out, before the summer crowds converged and prices sky-rocketed. There were quite a few people at some of the parks, even in mid-May. Patience was needed, especially looking for parking at some of the more well-known features.

Mileage driven after this blog, from Seattle: 5,805 miles (9,342 km),

Next blog - back to city life.

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