Utah - Goblin Valley State Park

Located in Emery County, between Green River and Hanksville off Rte 24, scores of intricately eroded "creatures" made of weathered stone greet visitors to Goblin Valley.  The small but well-planned campground has sites nestled at the base of the goblins, shelters from the sun, and excellent, free shower facilities!

The park's iconic, most recognizable goblins.

Utah - Canyonlands N.P. Island in the Sky

Camped along the Colorado River just outside Moab - welcome to my front porch!

Rereading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire I have come to appreciate and understand this harsh environment and land sculpted by water and wind.  I can't imagine being here in the summer; as it is, daytime temperatures now are pleasant though with huge variations - 88 deg. in the sun, 68 deg. in the shade.  I camp for two nights at Island in the Sky, with sweeping vistas to the canyon floor, the Colorado and Green Rivers, and the Henry Mountains in the distance.

Imagine traveling this thread of a dirt road!

Mesa Arch

A small oasis of green

Canyon wrens sang in the pinyon pines

Ravens performing their aerial acrobatics

Light changes everything here

Sunrise adds layers of color

Colorado National Monument

Until Ranger Angela at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park talked about Colorado Nat'l Monument and how great the hikes in the canyons were, I'd thought this place was just some small park, with maybe an obelisk-type monument or statue of a miner ...duh!  Little did I realize how stunning it is. 

Miner John Otto came here in 1909 and fell in love with the place.  It was due to his urging and rallying local support  that it was named a national monument.  In fact, he and his bride were married at the foot of 450-ft tall  Independence Monument, but...

His insistence that they live in a tent near its base so he could be near the rocks and animals he loved drove poor Beatrice to a divorce after only a few weeks!  While I was there, a young couple hiked up and began assessing the rock for the climbing route they were planning to take.  No thanks - I'll enjoy the views from below.

Juniper berries anyone?  The Utes used to use them for seasoning their food.

These rippling sandstone layers are very thin and brittle

A female collared lizard - I understand it's rare to see these critters. Lucky me!

Lunch for a hungry hiker.

They really don't want anyone lost!

We spooked each other - a black-tailed jackrabbit.

And of course, the park's most famous and sought-after animals, the bighorn sheep...

These horns can weight 30 pounds apiece and the ram carries it his whole life.

Anyone wanna buy a rock?  Actually, there's a lot more where this came from.

 I've never seen a campground with a rest room on the national register of historic places...until now!

Utah - Dinosaurs and Petroglyphs

Since I was so close to the Utah side of Dinosaur National Monument, and that's where all the cool fossils and 2,000 + year-old Fremont Indian petroglyphs and pictographs were, I decided to hop over to Utah for a couple of days of ancient history...and I mean really old!

This part of the state knows how to welcome you

Anyone sense a theme here?

This park was the dream of a paleontologist named Earl Russell, who discovered the fossils and began a campaign to preserve the remaining finds in situ, after tons had been excavated and carted off to museums around the country.  As I was looking at some of the photos, I realized I've seen two of them - at the New York and Washington D.C. Museums of Natural History - funny how the past has connected me to this moment.

150 million years ago, it looked like this, until a great flood drowned hundreds of dinosaurs in the area and piled up their bones into a sort of log-jam

Yes, I'm really touching a dinosaur fossil!

 Sort of puts it all into perspective.....

 Now off to search for petroglyphs, while the light is still good for photographing this ancient rock carvings.

Can't ignore this warning!

That lizard is more than six feet long and is in perfect shape!

Kokopelli, trickster, rainmaker, fertility god?

 Random shot of the backseat "passenger" in the car next to mine...

In 1914, recently divorced, her children grown, Josie Morris headed for the hills and homesteaded near a small box canyon, where she had river for water, pasture land for horses, room for a garden, and not a few hardships (poisonous snakes, cacti, strangers, harsh winters.  She lived there until she died at the age of 90.  Wow - what a life!!!!

Just catching dinner on the pond algae

As the sun sets, the light turns the cliffs rosy, and I'm not the only one to enjoy the Green River views....

A lone pronghorn antelope just chillin' by the river