Stories set in Stone

If ever there was a perfect ending to our trek throughout this red-rock land, it would be to hunt for petroglyphs (meaning "stone carving") and pictographs (meaning a "painted image") on our way back to Park City. At this point we had already hiked over 20 miles in 4 days, but all members of the party were up to the challenge. During our stay in Moab, we learned that the Ute Indians lived throughout the Colorado plateau around 700 BC, and some of the rock art dated back to then! It's amazing to think that these images and stories, painted or carved in these stones, have survived thousands of years and are still here for us to enjoy. What a testament to human consciousness and creativity, to think that those stories told eons ago, are still alive today...

I just can't get enough of this horizon...looking up at the La Sal Mountains.

We found these petroglyphs out on Potash road, about 5 miles outside downtown Moab (sorry they're a bit difficult to see). They date back to around 1600 AD, because the Spanish introduced horses to North American in the 16th century, so the images of horses in the Ute rock art didn't appear until then. The Ute practiced a hunting/gathering lifestyle, so many of the images depict humans with shields, and bison and mountain goats.

These pictograms date back even further, probably to around 2000 BC. We found these about 45 minutes north of Moab in an area called Thomas Springs. We had to drive through a ghost town, and down a long dirt road before finding them. But they were worth it! The images were more archaic and although slightly eerie in their alien-like depictions, it is speculated that these pictograms are more anthropomorphic.

These pictograms were on a stone wall across the canyon from the ones above, and were not as naturally protected from the elements. Regardless, these drawings probably date back to around 2000 BC as well, and again may be depicting an anthropomorphic tale.

The sun was brilliant as we drove back through the desert, and we experienced yet another breathtaking sunset only a couple hours after this picture was taken.

We dined in Price at a quaint Italian restaurant, and finally arrived back home in Park City, only to fly back to Santa Barbara the next morning. I cannot wait to come back and explore more of this fantastic land!

Windows of the Soul

Before coming on this trip, I knew that the natural world was filled with an abundance of wonders that I had yet to see. I haven't even seen any of the official "wonders of the world", but for me, these arches certainly fall in that category. Although seemingly explained by simple science, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around such things, and feel as though I have an easier time understanding them as "magical" and "full of wonder".

On this morning we awoke before the sun, and hurried to the trailhead of Delicate Arch, arguably one of the most famous in the park given it is on almost all of the Utah license plates, and thus one of the most crowded places to visit. We had been advised that sunrise was the best time to view it, because there would be less of a chance for crowds, and so we arrived at the trailhead at 6:30, and as the sun began to rise over the La Sal Mountains, we ran the 1.5 miles to try to beat it there. Coming around the last bend up a slick rock slope, I stopped to catch my breath, only to have it caught again by what I saw. A huge natural ampitheatre set a permanent stage for the main attraction: Delicate Arch perched almost precariously at the edge of a precipice that plunged downward into the valley below. I sat and enjoyed the show as the sun came over the mountains and changed them quickly from brown to a warm reddish-orange. I walked around the rim of the ampitheatre and came to stand directly underneath this arch, and felt dizzy with wonder and glee. How sacred it was to stand beneath something so tangibly transient, and feel such a love for God and nature.

Below is a picture taken by the cute German couple (they were the only others to beat us out there!) of my family, and I beneath Delicate Arch...it was well worth the journey!

Later that night, Matt was reading Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire", about his experience of being a park ranger at Arches National Park. He gave one of the most beautiful and accurate descriptions of Delicate Arch:

"There are several ways of looking at Delicate Arch. Depending on your preconceptions you may see the eroded remnants of a sandstone fin, a giant engagement ring cemented in rock, a bow-legged pair of petrified cowboy chaps, a triumphal arch for a procession of angels, an illogical freak, a happening... If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful-that which is full of wonder." ~Edward Abbey.

Near the beginning of the trail out to Delicate Arch, there is a rock with some ancient Ute Indian petroglyphs (pictures carved in stone). These were created a couple thousand years ago, and somehow they have withstood the test of the elements and time. It's almost as astounding as the arches themselves!

After Delicate Arch we visited Turret Arch (shown above), which appeared to me as the facade to the castle of a giant, complete with door, window and chimney!

Directly across from Turret Arch were North and South Windows. This is the view from the backside, and to me it seemed as though God had misplaced his spectacles, and overtime they became more and more apart of the land until they formed these two spectacular arches.

Another defiance of gravity...Balance Rock! (shown to the left) The rock on top weighs over 300 tons! And of course we have my dad and Kevan defying gravity in their own way too...

Mom took both this picture and the one above of Kevan and Dad...what great framing!

Later that evening, Matt and I decided to go for an evening hike at Fisher Towers, which we had floated past on our raft down the Colorado the day before. Shown here behind Matt, these rock formations seem as though a cookie monster came through and took big bites out of the tops of these rocks, and allowed the crumbs to fall as they would, forming the crazy jigs and jags of stone along the edges.

The flaming fortress...Titan Tower. How is that little squiggly stone structure even there?!

Adrift on the Colorado River

The beauty of this place astounds me...I can see why the early Mormon settlers thought of it as a promised land of sorts. Each day has brought a new adventure, and this morning we decided to go river rafting down the Colorado River, which is one of the 2 main rivers flowing throughout the Colorado Plateau (the other is the Green River). We had made reservations for an all day rafting trip the day before with a company called Adrift Adventures, and although this time of year the rapids are quite subdued, we still had a beautiful and relaxing day floating down 14 miles near Fisher Towers.

The La Sal mountains along the Colorado river...I learned that the Tamarisk tree (seen here along the banks) was introduced in the 30's to help stop bank erosion along the river. Big mistake. This tree has grown out of control and is actually damaging the ecosystem more than helping it (when will people learn to let nature take its natural course...) So about 3 years ago they introduced the Tamarisk beetle, which supposed to eat only the Tamarisk tree...we'll see what happens there...

Matt and I enjoying our float...we did the all day float, so enjoyed a buffet style lunch on a nice little sandy beach. We were also lucky enough to see a river otter along the way!

Kevan was allowed to row the boat for a bit, while our guide Laura (in the yellow pfd) gave him pointers...she was about ready to offer Kevan a job rowing tours down the river!

A day well spent: Kevan, Matt, me, Dad and Mom at the end of our rafting trip (and none of us looking all that more tan, unfortunately!)

As we rafted down the river we noticed some vineyards growing along the banks, so after we cleaned up back at the condo, we decided to head back and check it out. I for one, was curious as to which grapes they were growing in this arid desert climate, so we found our way to Castle Rock Vineyards. Apparently they planted Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a little Syrah back in the 1980's, and have been producing wine ever since. I was surprised to find out that they're only 1 of 6 winemakers in the ENTIRE UTAH STATE! The wines were ok...but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately...) I'm spoiled by the amazing wines produced in California. Regardless, the vineyards were beautiful, set against the red rock mountains.

View from Castle Rock vineyards, looking back at Castleton along the Colorado river.

On our drive back along the canyon, we witnessed an amazing sunset. It's as though God, in his enthusiasm to paint us a spectacular sunset, accidentally spilled some of his paints without knowing, and they flowed down and caused the river to become one with the sky.

The Devil's Garden

First of all I'm incredibly impressed with my family: not only did we awake at 5:30am this morning, but we also managed to enjoy a delicious pancake breakfast and hit the trails by 8am! Today was our first full day in Moab, and we'd decided to spend it exploring Arches National Park, which is about 20 minutes from Moab. We chose to do the Devil's Garden hike, an 8 mile loop with about 2 miles of smaller trails to reach each arch.

There are over 2,000 documented arches in the Arches National Park, and probably countless others that are yet to be found. On our hike through the Devil's Garden we encountered about 10-12 of the more famous arches, and several other smaller ones as well...

The first arch of the hike was Landscape Arch. This arch is longer than a football field, although it may not look like it in this picture since it's quite a way off in the distance. About 20 years ago people were allowed to walk right underneath this arch, until a 80 ton slab of rock broke off from it! Thankfully no one was injured, but it is a healthy reminder that gravity will get the best of these natural beauties... eventually.

There was a full moon 3 nights ago, and each morning since the moon has remained quite visible throughout the day. I love the contract between the still slightly darkened morning sky, the red rocks and the tiny moon watching over it all...

This is a view a formation of rocks called "fins". Fins are formed when the cracked earth moved together pushing the sandstone upward and into flat wall-like formations. From the side angles they are also often called "needles".

Just another beautiful desert scene in the Devil's Garden.

The view of the canyon on the other side of Partition Arch. (Kevan and Mom in the foreground)

Double O Arch from the backside. It's amazing to me that these "windows" in the rocks are formed miraculously by wind and water and the simple feat of erosion...and the very gravity that forms them, will eventually reduce them back to the earth.

MOAB!

Right, what a day! The remaining Turner family members (Dad, Mom, Kevan and myself) plus Matt all awoke quite early to pack up and hit the road from Park City down to Moab, a city in Southern Utah that is surrounded by such fantastic natural beauties as Arches National Park, the Canyonlands, and Needles National Park. But before we get to the beautiful pictures, a couple highlights from the drive there (which lasted about 4.5 hours driving in the car, and an additional 1.5 hours of stoppage time...)

First of all, it's never a good idea to let Kevan be in charge of navigation. The first thing he did when he got his hands on the Garmin navigation system, was to change the language option from English to German, and the Garmin lady proceeded to chatter off directions to us in German for the rest of the trip. (none of speak a lick of German...) Since none of us could understand her, we were at Kevan's map-reading mercy, so when it came time to find a place to stop, Kevan made the call. We pulled off into a tiny town called Helper, Utah, a near ghost town with boarded up shop after boarded up shop. So after stopping to fill up at the gas station, we inquired as to where the best place to eat was.

The answer was quick: Marsha's, and it was just down the street. We gave our thanks and headed down to check it out. This is what we found:

As appetizing as a 'Sammich' and 'Home Bakin' sounded, my appetite for proper grammar led us to continue driving down the road to see what else we could find...a decision that had us following German directions to Pinnacle Brewery. We eventually arrived at an oaky-looking restaurant called Groggs, and we would have continued our hunt for a good lunch if Kevan hadn't convinced us to stay...and it turns out that we shouldn't judge, because we ate one of our best meals on this trip.

We then continued our journey to Moab, a city settled by Mormans in the 17th century and named for a Biblical city that was just outside the promised land. Once arriving it was easy to see why this gorgeous desert land was seen as sacred.

Our first venture into the promised land...hiking through Bootlegger Canyon. I don't know if you can tell, but there is a huge gash through the earth where the train runs through carrying Potash that is mined just down the way (right along where the sun and shadows meet). When I asked my dad what Potash was, he said it was 'something that goes into something.'

You can see us in the shade, hiking along the slickrock, which really isn't so slick at all is actually quite grippy! Mom could never seem to get it right and kept calling it things like 'sliprock'. Regardless, I guess this stone earned its name because when the early settlers tried to cross it with their horses, it was slick to the horses' hooves...

our destination: Corona Arch. It's 140 ft tall and 160 ft wide, and is formed purely from wind and erosion. Amazing.

Bowtie Arch: just around the corner from Corono Arch. Our guidebook described this arch as looking like an alien in his spacecraft came crashing down from above (most likely while distracted by the magnificent Corona Arch nearby)

Riding the rails! Hiking along the railroad tracks toward the trailhead.

The beginnings of Utah craziness!

I'm in Utah! After spending the weekend in Park City with my family, we took a couple day trips to Sundance and hiking around the area. Here are a few quick pictures to start off our trip!

My dad and Matt at the top of the Sundance ski mountain...we took the ski lift to the top, and enjoyed our coffee while admiring the views.
My mom and Nana debating about whether to take the Maverick or Wedding Ring runs back down the slope!

Matt's new leather jacket from my Uncle Ken...a Fonze in the making!

Go ahead punk...make my day...

The sunset driving home from Sundance to Park City...I love the mountains!