Wednesday I departed from St George, Utah driving north on Hwy 15 to Hwy 70 going east. Cottonwood trees in the dry washes are starting to turn yellow, just a few leaves. This is DRY country !! The landscape along Hwy 70 from Fremont Jct to Green River surprised me. Several scenic viewpoints for places with names like Devil's Canyon and Ghost Rock, large red sandstone reefs, and pale grey-purple hillsides. Eagle Canyon had brown-grey blocky walls and was very deep. There is snow on the high peaks in central Utah.
Thursday morning I entered Arches National Park. Many of the arches here are created from erosion of sandstone fins. Pothole arches form high on the side of a sandstone formation, first from cascading water erosion, then from overhead freezing and cracking of the roof. I enjoyed hiking on the sandstone slick-rock as well as on the trails. This landscape is so large it dwarfs the people walking under an arch.
.....As I continued east into Colorado the red sandstone formations faded away, replaced by the pale brown and white canyons of the Sagebrush uplands. I stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Center outside Dolores. It features a wonderful display of pottery, basketry, ancient tools, models of how the ancient Puebloans lived, and photos of the intensive archeology done ahead a dam being built on the Dolores River. These ancient people did not simply vanish, as visitors were told years ago, they migrated south and east to join other groups of Puebloans. Today's Native Americans consider these ancient people to be their ancestors.
,,,,,Further east the countryside is more green and less dry. Hillsides of russet, orange and yellow Oaks were brilliant in the afternoon sun.
Photos of Double Arch in Arches NP, and Escalante Pueblo after excavation.
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