Friday, July 2, 2010

Arches, Canyons, Needles and Reefs


Southern Utah—Wow!  We spent four days in four national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon, plus Natural Bridges National Monument. In each we hiked to and through some of their notable features. As dramatically beautiful as western Oregon is, it lacks arches, needles or reefs here (we are blessed with stunning mountains and waterfalls). Southern Utah comes in a rainbow of sandstone colors, and was prehistorically ocean floor. As a child growing up in an area of sandstone mountains in S. California, one of the thrills of my childhood was finding seashells stuck in canyon walls at the edge of town. Until this trip I didn’t realize just how extensive the ocean coverage was—all the way into what is now the Great Plains.

We camped out every night, and got plenty of hiking and gawking in on this trip. S. Utah is every bit a scenic wonderland as is the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or any other well-known US destination. Craig is writing about our tour in more detail here  http://acraigwalker.blogspot.com/





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