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Published: August 31st 2009
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Red Rocks
Sunrise looking out from Airport Mesa on to the Bell, Courthouse and 2 others I am falling behind on my blogs! I take so many pictures during the day that it takes quite a while to go through them all to decide what to upload. So rather than make it "perfect" I will put in an update now with more to follow later on.
I spent the last day in the Sedona area on a hike but started the day at Airport Mesa at a view point. There is a picture here from that viewpoint - I climbed all the way up on this rock but was not quite brave enough to go all the way to the top... this view is looking out on the Bell formation, the Courthouse and I think it is also the Cathedral (from the other side) and another that I don't quite remember.
I went on to Oak Creek Canyon for my 6+ mile hike. This area is like an oasis in the middle of the desert - so green and lush and beautiful! I passed through some ruins of a settlers homestead- very interesting. The picture uploaded is the creek running under a rock overhang. It was so nice and cool in this spot.
The
Oak Creek Canyon
The creek running under a rock overhang hike was relatively easy but it was a HOT day - over 100. The trail was interesting because it crossed over the creek 15 times and you had to find your way over the creek balancing on rocks. It was not difficult though and the worst that could happen is sneakers get a bit wet. Lots of people just sat in the creek! On my way back from the end, it was interesting that most of the people I saw asked me "how much further to the end?" and I couldn't help but think that it was a silly reason to go on a hike just to get to the end if they were not going to enjoy the rest of it. It was a gorgeous walk. Down below is a picture of the beginnings of an arch in the rock.
I went to a couple of other sites for sunset - one picture uploaded here. This is an unenhanced picture - look at the color of those rocks!!!
I set off early the next morning towards Utah. The first thing I had to do was find a Best Buy 😞. I had "the blue screen of death"
on my brand new computer!! (another reason why there were no new blog updates) and after I finally reached Zion National Park, had to get back in the car to drive another hour in to a town. Turns out it was a world-wide problem from Microsoft, a faulty Windows update.
Because I was already over there, I went up the other side of Zion which is a lot less used. There was hardly anyone else there. I have another picture of the red rocks at sunset, this one showing double arches in the rocks.
There was a lot of smoke rising over the next hill when I went in to the park and it was even worse as I was leaving. It was not very big so I thought maybe it was a controlled burn, but I found out later that this was a wildfire started by lightening. It ended up getting out of control and swept through a small town. It is still not contained. There are a few out of control fires right now. I am no longer near any of them but it makes for poor air quality.
The Grand Canyon was from the top
Zion National Park
The west entrance- two arches in the rocks. Sunset of the canyon looking down, and Zion is from the bottom looking up. They said that the oldest part of the geology in Zion is the youngest in the Grand Canyon.
Another picture here, that I hope you can see well, is at the Weeping Rock. The water percolates down the rock and drips out over the overhang. It fosters beautiful hanging gardens on the rock. The short trail is a little nature walk and leads up to behind the water. A beautiful nice cool spot. This picture is from behind the water.
I end this here - I have more pictures of Zion to share and then have a LOT of photo's to go through before I can upload for Bryce. Stay tuned!!
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Pat
non-member comment
Neat
I love your pictures Christina. I have got a lot of virtual traveling done the past couple weeks.