In the morning, we shook out all the red dust that had accumulated on our things while we stayed there, and packed the car. One of the ravens that had done some mischief came back to laugh and taunt us.

It was quite upset that we hadn’t used the grill and it used gestures of pecking at the cold grill and shaking its feathers at us. I apologized for not eating more while we were here and deliberately — oops — left some muffin crumbs.

The sun is up! It’s time to drive across Utah and into Arizona!

At least till we find a cache, a cool landmark, Indian jewelry shack or wacky roadside attraction, of course. Like the jeep “parked” at the top of this hill; you might not even be able to see it in this photo, but it’s there.

The Hole N’ The Rock was one of those very entertaining places that has an eccentric collection of stuff outside, and a tourist trap of knick knacks inside. That is to say, inside the rock. There was a whole shop carved into the rock, and for a small additional fee, we could have taken a tour of the rest of the inside of the rock. We did not. The outside was enough for us!

My first eye popping moment (besides the jeep) was seeing this guy, he was about 15′ long and stuck way up on the wall.

We wandered about taking photos because it was one of those places that there was something weird, unusual and different at every turn. Like His-n-Hers fire hydrants for the dogs.

Or like a cactus made of bowling balls. Seriously.

Or a “jeep” made of license plates and scrap metal!

And old signs.

And old bulls.

And golfers made from golf clubs.

After touring the oddities at Hole N’ The Rock, we drove on through Utah, occasionally picking up caches but mostly just driving. Bonus, we saw Wilson Arch, which was a earthcache, at just the right time for a stretch.

Is it enough to see it? Or enough to get out and look around?

Of course not, we also had to climb up to it. What were you thinking??

I eventually caught up to the kids that scrambled up that steep hillside like it was a manicured football field and got some pictures of the arch from the inside.

Only to turn around and see Kendrah dangling her feet — for real this time — over a very steep drop-off. I freaked out a little and yelled at her to slowly scoot back to safety. Then yelled, “Wait, let me get a picture first.”

I busied myself with photos so I didn’t have to watch Kendrah getting up and away from the edge. She ran around barefoot on the narrow ledge we were on with the arch above us but I couldn’t watch.

Oh good heavens, there she is in the shadows, playing around on the slope like she wouldn’t die if she fell or something.

Meanwhile, Quin is running up and down the hill, showing people the “best” way to get to the top. Kendrah is slipping and sliding down the hill and I finally tell them both that if they keep disregarding their safety, I needed to keep my camera ready cause I wanted to get pictures of the tragedy in order to make some money from their spectacular deaths.

They behaved better after that.

On and on we drove, till we got to the Mexican Hat, where I pulled over for a few quick shots.

Then we drove some more. There wasn’t much out there to keep the Unhappy Frog from pouting, but it was new and different to us. I enjoyed the endless road and the almost nothingness out here.

We drove into Monument Valley next, but that will have to wait for another post.

We took the long way home, of course. The kids enjoyed sitting in the car with the A/C on full blast watching the scenery go by. They were fine with me stopping to take pictures as long as A) I didn’t make them get out of the car and B) I left the car running.

I really wanted to hike the trail to this arch but the kids were refusing even when I threw the logic at them that they can cool off later, that they won’t get this opportunity again anytime soon, that it would be fun and the photos would be great. They didn’t care, they were done. So I got this picture, and gave up and drove on.

Another place I wanted to explore but it was too much effort to get the kids out into the heat. At this point they were not only refusing to get out, they’d lost interest in the scenery, too. So I let it be and took photos and didn’t even try to involve them.

We left the park and headed back to our last night at camp. Along the way we stopped at an Earthcache featuring two large rock plateaus called the Merrimac and the Monitor.

And a close up of the Merrimac:

And a close up of the Monitor:

There at the viewpoint, I saw this little tugboat rock that made me laugh since the other rocks were named for ships.

The sun was setting as we made our way to camp.

When we got back, we saw the ravens had pulled bristles from my broom. Pretty funny, huh? What was more crazy was that we’d left out the pack of baby wipes, which they’d ripped open and festooned the entire campsite with the wipes. We spent some time running around pulling them off cactus spines and out of junipers and dust. This wasn’t as bad as when we’d left the curtains open the day before so the tent had some ventilation and wasn’t a sauna when we got back; the fine red dust had covered everything inside and we had to shake out our sleeping bags, pillows and clothing (for those that hadn’t bothered putting away dirty clothes or zipping up their bag of clean clothes). But still, camp was a mess both nights we came home after a long day out.

We decided it was time to go to the point and watch the sun set the rest of the way from there.

The sun setting caused the colors to go all soft and I thought it was really pretty.

Quin got kinda bored and was feeling grouchy so he climbed to the highest point he could find and sat slumped on top of the rock and pouted. That ended up being the perfect photo op as the sun sunk down right behind him. He looks like he’s meditating or something.

The sun went lower but there weren’t many clouds in the sky so I had no expectations for a spectacular sunset. We got back in the car and drove slowly down the road, watching the sun dip lower and lower, which is when the color started happening.

We watched it set, then we’d zoom to the next rise and watch that big ball of sun drop below the horizon again.

Then, to close out the day, a final shot. It was 8:00pm, it had cooled to a comfy temperature and we were all tired so we went back to camp and went to sleep.

More photos from Arches National Park, on our last full day there.

I can pinch the Balanced Rock!

Here’s another balanced rock, but it isn’t as famous as the other one.

These are the salt flats. The ground has “waves” or lumps and sometimes when the sun hit just right it was a little sparkly.

Evidence of a bit of underground upheaval….

Here’s the Delicate Arch, probably one of the most famous arches in the park.

The hike up to the viewpoint was short, if a little steep. But it was so hot that it took us a long time to do it, so I got a few pictures along the way.

The color here was the exact shade of green of the grass seed they spray on the hillsides here at home for erosion control. It’s not grass seed but it was sure pretty to see. It was shiny, too.

At the upper viewpoint I was sad to discover the trail to the actual arch was…well, somewhere else. I would have made the kids go but I expected there to be a trail and wasn’t really excited about just taking off for it without one.

Some nice Asian guy took our photo for us.

Then, while all the way up the trail the kids couldn’t stop whining about the heat, once we arrived, Quin ran back and forth along the rocks. At one point I looked back for him and noticed a photo op. I yelled at him to stop running, take 2 steps thataway, no, three! Stay…..

This was the only shade at the viewpoint and both kids at one point, tried to climb under the rock to take a break from the sun.

Back in the car with the A/C on high, we cruised around the park some more.

There will be one more post for Day 9, including some sunset shots you won’t want to miss!

Back in Arches National Park, I welcomed the opportunity to stop and take pictures whenever and wherever I liked, without time constraints or needing to be or do or go. It was our last day in the area and I wanted my photos to reflect that I was loving it here.

This first one is weird, I’m looking up at the rock sticking out of the side of the rock face, although it almost looks like it’s sticking straight up.

There was very little traffic and many places to pull over so it was pretty awesome.

You may see a couple shots of the same rock formation from different perspectives, because it seemed to me that each blink brought new views and scenes and perspectives and I wanted to capture it. All of it.

Here’s a view of Park Avenue full of fins, balanced rocks and monoliths, according to the signage.

It also said it was an easy hike, but the kids were only willing to go so far as the entrance, and then because they were inspired by the surroundings, began to try to walk like Egyptions.

I got some shots of “dead” junipers.

There’s the Three Gossips.

An arch that was probably somewhat recently formed when the rocks fell.

Check out those layers!

Maybe these are called “Knobs”?

Peek-a-boo, I see an arch!

And I’ll leave you today with a bit of a Sphinx. Or at least it made us think of it.

I will post more of this day later.

I was happy to see the canyons of Canyonlands, and it was still early enough in the day that the kids were having fun, too.

Blobs…

Shrubs on blob outcroppings…

Vast vistas…

Boots over vast vistas…

Kendrah on the edge of the world… Isn’t this a great picture? It’s one of my favorites (I may say that a lot, forgive me). I love the casual comfort she has while sitting there with her legs dangling over thousands of feet of nothingness. Ok, actually, her feet are on the ground and she was perfectly safe but it looks scary and wonderful.

There were canyons inside canyons and hoodoos jutting into the sky from far, far below.

I strained the limits of my camera to get a closer shot of the hoodoos.

Then turned slightly to my right and got some other shots from other perspectives.

Such an incredible place, I didn’t have to go far to see another rock that caught my eye.

But I was usually drawn back to seeing those massive canyons. I would have loved to take a jeep and explore far and wide out there.

Jabba the Hutt rocks.

More canyon views.

Desert greenery with canyon views. And a boy that I love.

The next 4 photos are not for the faint of heart. We stood over the canyon, looking down on a switchback road that went thousands of feet down into the canyon. You can see (well, maybe) a jeep part way down in the first photo, a white suburban heading down in the next, another glimpse of a road in the third as I look to my right.

Those roads are only reached AFTER they took this one, which was to my left:

I bet you have to pack an extra pair of pants if you’re planning on driving this road. Even if you were fine when you started, I’d guess there would be some carpel tunnel symptoms starting. Wouldn’t you have white knuckles the entire time if you were out there? I said I’d like to have a jeep and explore, but really, driving on the bottom of the canyon would be anticlimactic after getting down there.

Thankfully we didn’t need to take this road to get back to Arches, I think my little Saturn would not have appreciate the journey. As it was, we took a nice paved highway and headed into Moab to go through the McDonald’s drive through for more ice to keep our drinks cold. On average, the three of us drank between 4 and 5 gallons of liquid each day. You’d think we would be stopping every 10 minutes to pee, but we figured we sweated most of it out so didn’t have to make too many stops.

The next post will be about us back in Arches National Park.

It was our last day in DHP. Yesterday was visiting Moab and doing the Fiery Furnace Tour, but today was the “real” scenic day with dividing our time between Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. We started out in Canyonlands. It seemed kinda boring, because it lacked certain characteristics, like, well, like canyons.

Very cool blobs of rock, but totally not what I’d come to Canyonlands for.

But then, we continued on and saw a hint of elevation, and some nifty cactus.

And then? Finally! Canyons!

The blobs were more interesting now that I’d seen some canyon and I was happy to take more photos of that.

But, I really craved to see the canyons.

Which were out there somewhere!

We stayed a while at the point overlooking the canyons, looking out into what might have been the Maze District. The funny thing about this National Park is that it is divided into 3 sections, two of which are not accessible by car. At least most cars. So we got to see out into the other districts but there weren’t all that many viewpoints. But, what I saw….you can see:

Looking back, it’s interesting to me what caught my eye and how that translated into photos.

Canyonlands was described to me as “Like the Grand Canyon, only stretched out and squashed down.”

We decided to have a little fun and we jumped some canyons.

There’s one more post coming of pictures from Canyonlands before we move on to Arches again for more photos.

Heading back to camp after the Fiery Furnace tour was about an hour’s drive through Arches itself, then another 20 minutes or so to our campsite at DHP. Well, that’s travel time. I pulled over a few times to get these shots.

And these.

Like a sloped stack of pancakes or something!

Away from Arches and cruising on highway 313 we had to pause to capture a rainbow.

Then we got to the Point and caught the show happening in the sky.

The darkening sky changed the landscape. Gone was the harsh bleached out colors from being in full sunlight, the rich greens and blues of the red desert were amazing to see!

I finished the day with a couple of panorama shots.

This is a laid back post that won’t require many words, considering it’s part 5 and we’re still in the Fiery Furnace taking pictures left and right.

Although I will tell you what Ranger Kait is saying here at this juniper. She explained that junipers will self-amputate their limbs in order to keep another limb alive in times of low water supply. So the gnarly dead shrub she has her hand on actually has a core inside directing what water it can get to the sole remaining limb. Kinda cool, even if I hate junipers!

Here’s the Kissing Turtles. See them?

This is the close-up of that distance shot on the right, above.

This is some wonderful examples of tafoni.

Sometimes we could walk between the fins. Other times, we couldn’t.

Here’s the tour group squishing themselves in a canyon.

And here we are at Surprise Arch. As in, Surprise, we can’t go any further on this tour! Time to head back, but only after a long rest and Ranger Talk… and getting several shots as bast as we could from directly beneath it.

See that silver of blue, the very, very thin one just to the left of the shadow, but before the sun hits the rock? This rock counts as an arch.

This is how it looks more straight-on, the arch you see has that sliver of blue off to the right between the layers of rock. Weird, huh?

The crack in the rock I’m straddling went very deep. We tossed some sand down it and we could here it falling for quite a while.

More hoodoos! Aren’t they colorful?

Then, sadly, we were back to the beginning, my kids said a sad farewell to their new best friend Ranger Kait, I got one last shot, this one of the info board at the entrance/exit to the Fiery Furnace, and then we photographed our way home….which is yet another post.

The photo ops in the Fiery Furnace were never-ending. I worried about my camera batteries dying as I aimed here and there and back the way we’d been and shot off dozens of photos. Thankfully they lasted just fine and I was able to get every shot I wanted, although not every shot turned out perfectly. It’s sometimes hard to grasp the scope of the sights.

But I did my best!

There was a lot of lush greens in the dry red rocks which was such a pretty contrast.

Our guide had been talking of geology and then said at the next stop she’d be talking about biology. So we get to the next stop and there is a large pothole with two dead squirrels, and on the rock nearby was a dead bat. Um…not the kind of biology she was thinking about to talk about, but she had a good sense of humor about the apparently “murder-suicide” of the squirrels.

We arrived at another stop and she had us look at the arches here upside down–she said they are called the Skull and once you see them that way it’s hard to imagine them as anything else.

…then upside down…

Occasionally, we’d walk along the rock walls and knock on them. There were often large pockets of hollowness with just a crust of rock over them. So you could hear the deep “thrump” instead of the usual “thunk” when you knocked on walls or sometimes floor. Our knuckles got kinda sore from knocking since most of it is solid. But it was sure fun to find a pocket! So much so I had to take a picture of it.

The discoloration on the rock reminded us of a clock.

This is one of the places we had to jump from one rock to the other.

Isn’t this a beautiful place? There’s more photos for another post.

We’d started the day photographing DHP and then playing in Moab, then at 4:pm we met up with our tour group and the ranger named Kait and began our 3 hour tour into the Fiery Furnace.

It was about 100 degrees, more give than take, but I am not certain. We were a bit worried that the Fiery Furnace was named for the obvious reasons, although we discussed this in the car. I asked the kids if they knew of some other situation where there was a fiery furnace and they immediately thought of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the Bible. I reminded them that they got thrown in but they didn’t get burned because Jesus was with them. So I called out, cheerleading style, “Who are we?” and they both yelled back, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego!!” I continued building the excitement and hollered, “And where are we going?” Kendrah yelled, “TO BE WITH JESUS!!!”

Ok, it wasn’t THAT hot. And the Fiery Furnace was named for the colors of the rocks at sunset rather than for the heat. Actually, once inside the canyons it was quite pleasant. And not one person on the tour died.

We stopped frequently to admire different aspects of the area, like the balanced rock.

And other rocks.

And landscapes.

Sometimes we had to walk through very narrow canyons.

And got to see several of the thousands of arches in Arches National Park.

Sometimes they aren’t fully formed yet but make good resting spots.

Others are more holes than arches. Give it time, give it time.

This is the desert. Not a lot grows out here but sage, juniper and cactus, but in the Fiery Furnace, there was aspen trees and scrub oak, and other greenery. It was such a striking contrast!

The walls had tafoni which was pretty cool.

The ranger used the kids to demonstrate her geology lessons.


Kendrah peeking to see if it’s an arch or a hole.

This was an arch. We climbed through it (although it was optional) but we had to remove our backpacks to fit through!

More tafoni.

Cute rock in a little cove.


Another crevice we squeezed through.


Aren’t the colors in these rock formations fascinating?

We aren’t through with the tour yet but I’ll be back to finish it now that Xanga has changed everything around and is allowing photos to be downloaded again!