Blogs from Moab, Utah, United States, North America - page 13

We have always watched National Geographic and have marveled at the big buffalo struggling through small mountains of snow in Yellowstone National Park. Well we wanted to experience that first hand. We have fallen in love with photography, we just got our new Canon lens, so why not? Now, remember we live in a desert, and we have never really been to a northern cold place, especially during winter. We knew there had to be preparation, so we donated some money to the Albuquerque REI, in return for some much warmer clothes, jackets, and snow shoes (keep in mind I wear flip flops rain, snow, or sunshine.) We started driving the day after Christmas, north through Farmington, NM and on to MOAB, Utah. Once we got into the Four Corners area of Colorado, it was just ... read more

Moab, Utah The main purpose of this trip is to dedicate a particular location or event Betty and I had during our many wondrous vacations. Most of these instances were unique to us and the drive along the Colorado River out of Moab, Utah is a prime example. A dedication was done to commemorate this single amazing event. Let me take just a minute to relive that day. The morning after spending a day at Arches National Park, we just started driving and ended up on a scenic byway along the Colorado River. It seem pretty nondescript until we got about 3 miles into the canyon the cliffs on each became steeper and higher. Soon sunlight was being blocked by the walls. Then we saw our first hawk and all of a sudden this little drive ... read more

Before leaving Wyoming we spent a day in Cody (founded by 'Buffalo Bill' Cody), which as you would expect, is now a slightly cheesy wild west themed high street with an otherwise normal US small town built around it. It has become a bit of a Mecca for the particular kind of American folk who buy into the modern take on the whole cowboy thing - ie riding around on a tassled Harley Davidson wearning nothing but a bandana and a pair of leather chaps. Well maybe some jeans under the chaps - and possibly a Harley branded t-shirt. We took a trip to the Cody Stampede rodeo, which looked like it was going to be a bit depressing at first, as we stood in the 3/4 empty stadium in the cold and rain, pretending we ... read more

le 6août, Nous partons plein nord de Cortez sur la 491, passage en Utah, puis la 191 North, jusqu'à Moab, que nous traversons pour arriver à Arches national Park. A ce jour, c'est la plus longue étape d'une traite en une journée : 115 miles c'est pas la mort. Nous nous déplaçons peinard à 50 miles/h et profitons des paysages fabuleux. C'est comme si on était dans un immense parc naturel. Les villages traversés sont minuscules et n'ont pas toujours bonne mine. L'habitat moyen est à base de mobil-home voire de caravanes. Une station-service, une poste et des églises. Bon, j'éxagère un peu. Les paysages sont désertiques (des petits buissons plus ou moins denses) et très ouverts, on voit très loin. Les rivières sont à secs, parfois pas de ponts mais un gué pour les traverser. ... read more

July 14 Our last in day in Utah was spent in the Canyonlands State Park area. Our first stop was Newspaper Rock, a 200 foot slab of black slick rock covered with petroglyph graffiti: Native American (dating begins 1,500 years ago) as well as more modern Anglo graffiti ... of which Juan Rambo remarked we should consider aliens as possible inspiration. Driving through the park in and of itself was amazing. The canyons and mesas are only a preamble of the Grand Canyon which will be seven to eight times the size of the images you see here. We split the rest of our day visiting two Native American ruins in Canyonlands. The first was a simple hike to an old Puebloan granary and a loop hike to the cave dwelling that had lately sheltered roughneck ... read more