Mesa Verde contains the greatest concentration of cliff dwellings in North America. They estimate that dwellings were occupied starting in 1200 AD. People had occupied the Mesa since 550 AD. As the culture flourished, they went from living in pit houses to mesa top pueblos and finally to elaborate stone villages built into canyon walls. We went on several hikes and explored all the variations of these dwellings.
Camping in Capital Reef was a wonderful experience, a spectacular landscape , great hikes, friendly campers and a you- pick orchard in the campground. we liked it so much we spent an extra day. The park is a former Mormon farmstead along the Fremont River. The farm was in operation into the 1960's. State parks in Utah rock-in more ways than one.Enjoy these shots from Kodachrome state park. One of the great things about hiking in Utah is having slot canyons to explore. While camping in the Kodachrome Basin we traveled about seven miles down a jeep road through some mostly dry washes to the Willis Creek Canyon trail head and had a wonderful four hour hike through the canyon. Our morning hike was rather boring, a walk to a local bike shop to get a flat fixed( a goats head thorn- nasty business ). While having coffee the Deep Canyon Coffee we struck up a conversation with a couple of locals regarding the hordes on the hiking trails in Zion. They took pity on us and gave us directions to a hike that is not notated on park maps. We saw no one on our 2 1/2 hour hike. So today we drove to the east side of the park and bushwhacked through a small wash and on slick rock terraces near Checkerboard Mesa. What follows are pictures fom both hikes. Zion is the rockstar of national parks. The scenery is great. The views are magnificent; the river a soothing presence. BUT this September it is packed with tourists-day trippers, tour buses of elderly folks, caravans of airstream camper vans, tent cities of European hikers, rented campers and the little guy. Here are some plants in bloom or not A visit to Bryce Canyon is to be transported to hoodoo heaven. You may be unfamiliar with the geological term "hoodoo", it simply means a stone column. In the case of Bryce a sand stone column that is the result of erosion. these hoodoos are colorful-pink, white and orange being the predominant colors. Interestingly, Bryce is not a true canyon which are formed by rivers, think Grand Canyon. Bryce was formed by fractures in the Earth's crust as a result of the Pacific Plate crashing into the Continental US Plate. Anyway, we took a fabulous hike through the Queens Garden and Peek-a-Boo loop. The hike took 4 1/2 hours and totally did us in but worth the effort. We took way to many photos but here is a large selection of them. We camped one night in Escalante State Park- most other campers were chased out in a torrential late afternoon rain storm. It rained all night but we were snug in the little guy. |