Next we headed to Green River, Utah.  We had wanted to stay closer to Moab but could not find a site.  So many of the National Park campgrounds were closed for the season, and the State Parks were already booked.  Come to find out it was MEA weekend, so the kids were out of school.  The last hoorah of the season....The weather is warmer and the water is still on!  We stayed at a private campground in Green River for the next week.  This was our home base as we traveled East, West, and South to see as many parks as we could.  Our first stop was at Arches National Park.  Here the sandstone has weathered from water and wind over time to form arches.  In Arches we drove only the paved roads, and walked on some hikes.  Now when I say paved roads, well lets just say there are some roads we found in these parks that even Al would NOT go on.  For those of you who know Al, that is saying something.  We are finding out that Utah is a beautiful state.

On day two we day we headed South to Capital Reef National Park.  This area was once home to prehistoric peoples who left petroglyphs and was also settled in the 1800's by the Mormons who planted groves of fruit trees.  This was beautiful country too.  You are in canyon lands, meadows, and have great over views.  One of the gravel road drives we took, brought us into the bottom of a canyon.  Again beautiful.

Day three we went back toward Moab to see Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Mountain State Park which is basically at the entrance of the National park.  We spent a whole day here and did not get back to the camper until late.  Here you are looking down into canyons.  The colors of the rock, strange wind erosion, just so pretty.  In Canyonlands National Park we stayed again on the paved roads and took some shorter hikes.  This country is a hikers dream.  You could hike here for 50 years and not hit all the trails.  We did not get to the Southeast corner of the National park.  Dead Horse Mountain State Park earned its name because in earlier times they would round up wild horses onto the dead end point of this park.  That point is miles up over looking the canyon with the Colorado river way at the bottom.  They would block the only escape, thus enabling them to choose the horses they wanted and then release the others back into the wild.  The views are breathtaking.  Oh see that 2nd picture with the road down in the canyon......nope we did not take that.  OMG!

see this road here....Al would not touch it!

Our next stop was Goblin Valley State Park.  This is another must see.  The red sandstone has eroded to form goblins.....we were able to walk everywhere amongst the goblins.  This was fun.  Many movies have been filmed in Utah in so many of these parks.  Here they filmed one of Al's favorites....Galaxy Quest.....

I had read and heard about a neat drive called 9 mile canyon.  This is found around the Price, Utah area.  The drive took us along a river in a canyon.  There are many petroglyphs and pictographs(instead of chiseling the image into stone, they would paint the image) here.  The first panel is called the great hunt.  It shows big horn sheep being hunted.  This is a very scenic drive, there were many long time abandoned cabins along the way.  We took a few short hikes here.  On our way out we encountered a cowboy moving his cattle to another pasture.  His only helper.....a working ranch dog.  The dog just flew back and forth keeping the cattle in line and moving them along, rerouting any strays back into the herd. 

On our last day we drove to Castle Valley and Fisher towers.  This is North and East of Moab.  The different colors of rock in this area is outstanding and we are loving the odd shapes wind and water have eroded the rock into.  But you haven't seen anything yet.......We could have stayed in this area for another week and still not have seen everything.  Some time we need to go back and see the Southeastern area of Utah.  Plus go back to where we were and explore some more. 

Next we are moving to see areas around Bryce Canyon.  For the next week we stayed at Kodachrome State Park.  This state park was named by National Geographic.  There are so many colors of rock, plants, etc here that Kodachrome the Kodak film was the best word they could use.  Here the colors in the rock go from white, peach, pink, red, brown, grey, and what did I forget.  The rocks are sandstone with striping.  This was my favorite area.  The weather continued to be perfect.  Our first stop was Bryce Canyon, and by the way we went back here several times...We drove part of the park and took some hikes.  This is soooooo pretty here.  The rocks have eroded into beautiful spires and  change color as the sun moves over them. 

Look how this becomes brilliant orange in the sun.  It just glowed. 

So we have just gotten a small taste of Bryce.  We will get back, but we will stay in order....The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a huge area of Utah.  We read about a drive that we just had to take.  It left from Henrieville through Escalante and Boulder.  At Escalante we stopped at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.  Here we hiked around and through colorful petrified logs.  Again the geology of Utah is breathtaking.  It was once at very tropical area and these huge trees died and became petrified filled with colorful minerals. 

As we continue along this road we are driving along the top looking down into canyons.  So pretty.  We end at Boulder, where we visit Anasazi State Park Museum.  This is a old dwelling that has been partially uncovered and repaired.  They have found numerous artifacts here that help tell the story of the ancient people once in this area. 

This was a underground dwelling

Here are some of the road views.....Al had to make a lot of stops for pictures........I think sometimes it was to calm his nerves......I took most of these out of the window as there was no pull off and sometimes the road was a bit narrow.....and no side rails.

a bit of a view of the road and edges

Along with sandstone for rock you are seeing petrified sand dunes.  Remember this was once under water and tropical.

Our next day at Kodachrome we went on a slot canyon hike just south of the park and also drove to Grosvenor Arch.  The slot canyon hike took us into a canyon in between two walls of rock.  Boy did we feel small.  We walked in sand as this is a wash that floods when it rains.  The rock walls are so colorful and you see the unique wave appearance the rock walls have achieved over the years.  To get into the slot canyon we had to climb over a huge pile of rock that fell down years ago. 

Our next day trip we adventured back to the Red Canyon.  This is the drive we took initially to get to our state park campsite and it is called the entrance into Bryce Canyon.  The Red Canyon is basically a drive.  You pass under two huge red rock arches and there are numerous red rock outcroppings eroded into all sorts of shapes.  There are several hiking areas here too, but we were a bit worn out.

On the same day we drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument.  Here you are back up into high country around 10,400 feet.  Beautiful pine forest and then a huge break in the landscape where you are looking into a canyon.  We did see some elk here, but the pictures were not that good, they turned their butts to us.....humphhhh

We ended our day by stopping quickly at Bryce Canyon to drive to Fairyland Point which is an overview.

Our next day we drove south to Kanab and decided to drive on a gravel road in the Vermillion Cliffs area.  This road shook the ahem out of us and the truck.  We came out on 89A and took a loop drive to Page and back north on 89 to Kanab.  At Page we saw the Glen Canyon Bridge and Navajo Bridge.  Saw some pueblo dwellings and dinosaur tracks. 

views of the brown striped rock along the way

Before we arrived at page we came along an area they called cliff dwellings.  Early inhabitants of the area had built these structures literally under a rock.  Have never seen this type of dwelling before.

Here you can see the rock with the structure under it as it was built.  See the door?

Next we are driving in the Vermillion cliffs and end up at Navajo bridge. 

Yep that green is the water.  This is the real color. 

A view of the cliffs and the road we are on.

Our next stop on this day is at Page.  We stopped at the Glen Canyon dam at Carl Hayden Visitor Center.  We did not see much of Glen Canyon, this will have to wait for another time.  There was a lot of information here on the area.  Also we were able to take a nice picture of dinosaur tracks.  These tracks were left in the sand they filled up with a harder rock and became permanent.  We had seen other dinosaur tracks in the Vernal area and all throughout our trip.  But these show up the best of all.  Again it just boggles my little mind.

We headed back to camp, it had been a long day and it was again a late night.

Our last day at Kodachrome State Park we headed back to Bryce Canyon.  We had actually stopped here at least three different times, but we dedicated our complete day here.  We had previously stopped at Sunset Point and had noticed that there was a walkway going down into the canyon.  We spent the day walking down into Sunset Point.  Starting out on the Navajo trail, then the Queens Garden trail, and back up.  I have to say something here.  I have been very thankful several times for having had my knee replaced.  I have had the joy of taking hikes that I could not have even tried to do.  This was one of those hikes.  As you look down into the canyon and watch the sun and shadows play over the spires of rock, you do not realize the world at the bottom.  When we got to the bottom there are huge pine trees, a small river, plants and life.  So pretty.  But I have to say the hike back up was a tough one....but we did it!  and we would do it again!

Queens Garden area of the trail

See our path and the arch we walk through

Our next blog we are headed to St George Utah