Utah’s Grand Circle of Parks and Monuments ….
October 2018
We’ve been in southern Utah,
travelling with Road Scholar, good friend Dale Bundrick, and new friends from
18 other states to explore the world’s greatest concentration of national parks
and monuments, known as the “Grand Circle of Parks and Monuments.” It’s a
special corner of the world, with landscapes and cultures unlike any
other. This ten-day trip covered 1200
miles and half a billion years of geologic history; it also covered us with sun
and snow, with temperatures from 30 to 70 degrees.
Utah’s parks and monuments here on the
Colorado Plateau paint a vivid picture of its geologic history. The
Colorado Plateau, which spans some 140,000 square miles, was created by colossal
forces that lifted the entire landform like an elevator for thousands of
feet. Canyon walls tell of advancing and retreating seas that laid down
thick beds of sediments atop the plateau. Gorges, arches, spires, buttes
and stone monuments reflect the relentless work of flowing streams, weathering
rock and gravity. Sand dunes are built from the debris of erosion, while
volcanic landscapes recall a time when molten rock and ash erupted violently
from the earth’s interior and spread across parts of the countryside.
The sculpted land of southern Utah has
much to offer. We explored five national
parks, several national monuments, a national recreation area, a national
forest, and various state parks. And,
starting in St. George, we only scratched the surface …
ST. GEORGE
The history of St. George began before
there was a town. The Virgin River Anasazi were St. George’s
earliest residents, inhabiting the area from about 200 B.C. to 1200 A.D.
They left behind rock art and ruins of their dwellings, but the reason for
their departure is unknown. The Paiute tribe arrived between 1100 and 1200
A.D., utilizing the area as a hunting ground and growing crops along the
riverbeds. In 1776, the Dominguez-Escalante Party became
the first recorded European-Americans to visit the area. Fur trappers and
government survey parties followed.
In 1854, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS Church, or Mormon Church) established
an Indian mission near present-day St. George. In 1861, church leaders called 309 families to
establish the Cotton Mission. Many of
the families assigned to settle the area hailed from the South and had the
skills necessary to grow cotton. The
cotton factory erected soon after the settlers’ arrival produced off and on for
approximately 50 years, but overall, cotton proved an unsuccessful venture. Paying
homage to the nickname of their former home, these settlers called the region
“Utah’s Dixie.”
Here are some of the notable historic
sites in St George:
St George LDS Temple
- Mormon pioneers began building this
temple in 1871, soon after arriving in the area. The building was completed and
dedicated in 1877, making it the first LDS temple to be completed in Utah. It
was the first temple constructed west of the Mississippi River and is the
longest continuously operated Mormon Temple in the world. (The famous Salt Lake
Temple was started in 1853, but was not completed until 1893).
St George LDS
Tabernacle - Built of native
red sandstone by struggling pioneers, the tabernacle was dedicated in 1876 and
stands as a monument to their faith and determination. Today, the tabernacle is
home to church services, music recitals, and the Dixie History and Music
Series.
SNOW CANYON STATE PARK
Snow Canyon is tucked in a transition zone between
Utah’s red rock canyonlands and neighboring Nevada’s Great Basin. The Red Mountains and the White Hills lie on either side, a few miles away. Eroded sandstone rocks of both colors
make up the cliffs at either side of the valley, while an even greater contrast
is provided by a mass of black lava, which originated from a cluster of
volcanoes just beyond.
How ere these
canyons formed?
Humans in Snow
Canyon
Major Attractions
PADRE CANYON
Padre Canyon lies within the Red
Cliffs Desert Reserve, located near Ivins UT, between Snow Canyon and St.
George. The Desert Reserve was
established in 1996 to protect a large and diverse habitat capable of sustaining
wildlife populations threatened by development and habitat loss. Three ecosystems – the Mojave Desert, the
Great Basin Desert, and the Colorado Plateau – merge in this area. Our stop here was short, but sweet – the red
cliffs are beautiful.
ZION NATIONAL PARK
Zion National Park encompasses 147,000
acres of some of the most scenic canyon country in the U.S.A. Zion is characterized by high plateaus, a
maze of narrow, deep sandstone canyons, striking rock towers and mesas. The
Virgin River, which created this masterpiece, twists through Zion Canyon. From
the canyon floor, visitors are dwarfed by the sheer sandstone walls colored
with white, cream coral and orange rock and dotted with intrepid trees.
How were these massive stone formations
created?
Nearly 200 million years ago, a great
desert of windblown sand covered a huge chunk of today’s southwestern US,
including Zion. This sand provided the
raw material for the Navajo Sandstone, which makes up the 2,000-feet-high
cliffs in Zion Canyon. Next came the
long, slow uplift of the Colorado Plateau, which raised the entire region many
thousands of feet. Over the last several
million years, streams running off the plateau carved the canyon we see
today. The process of erosion is made
easier by the ‘soft’ nature of sandstone and its numerous cracks or joints,
through which water can run. Seeping rain, the pull of gravity, and the
seemingly peaceful Virgin River are Mother Nature’s sculptors, continually
refining their work.
Humans in Zion
The earliest evidence of human
occupation here dates from about 7000 B.C.
Over the years, farming began in the region and people began to live in
larger groups; these were the Ancestral Puebloans, or Anasazi. They lived in and around Zion until about 1300
A.D. The Southern Paiutes came later
and were still here when the first white settlers, the Mormons, arrived several
hundred years later. Zion was named by the early Mormon
settlers for the sanctuary and refuge it provide. Names given by settlers and
visitors to prominent landmarks their feelings of reverence for this
place: Angels Landing, Great White
Throne, Altar of Sacrifice, West Temple, and Court of the Patriarchs. The Southern Paiute people also recognized
the extraordinary character of the canyon, and some park features are named
after figures from their theology. Western explorer John Wesley Powell
advocated protection for the region after he surveyed the area in 1872. The area was set aside as a national monument
in 1909 and became a national park in 1919.
Major Landmarks:
West Temple
is the highest peak in the southern part of Zion. In layer upon layer of rock, it rises more
than 3,800 feet from its base. West
Temple and its neighboring peaks of the Towers of the Virgin receive the first
rays of sunlight in the canyon. 
Beyond the end of the trail is The Zion Narrows, which requires wading in the Virgin River itself. Here one can feel the coolness of a lush sanctuary – a marked contrast to the desert beyond.
Other Sights in Zion Canyon – There’s a picture in every direction in
Zion Canyon, and every rock formation has a name. Maybe next time, we’ll get those names, but
this time we just enjoyed the views …
**********
Heading east to leave Zion, the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway is a beautifully
scenic drive, punctuated by a one-mile tunnel, blasted out of solid
sandstone. Begun in 1927 and completed
in 1930, the tunnel was considered at the time to be an engineering
marvel. It remains the longest vehicular
tunnel in the National Park system (5,613').
**********
The road from Zion to Bryce is quite
scenic. We followed US Highway 89 north
until we reached Utah State Highway 12,
which has been named an All-American Road.
This designation means the road has features that do not exist elsewhere
in the U.S. and that the road is unique and important enough to be a
destination unto itself. In other words,
this scenic byway offers one spectacular view after another.
Scenic Byway 12 crosses some of the
most scenic parts of Dixie National
Forest. In a region dominated by
desert, water is a precious resource and that makes Dixie National Forest a
valued neighbor. Thanks to the mountains
and plateaus in this alpine forest, snow accumulates throughout the winter at
high elevations. In spring, the snow
melts into cold, clear mountain streams that feed sparkling lakes – much needed
moisture in the hot, dry summers here.
BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK
How were these strange and amazing formations
created?
The history of Bryce Canyon begins about
145 million years ago. Since that time,
relatively soft limestone has been deposited, uplifted and eroded by ice,
snowmelt, thunderstorms and the roots of plants and trees. As billions of tons
of ground rock moved out of Bryce Canyon and into the Colorado River,
amphitheaters of colorful temples, pillars, domes and spires were left
standing. Water has carved the hoodoos
in a process called differential erosion, in which softer rocks of the columns
wear away more rapidly than harder rocks, leaving the wavy forms standing in
place.
Humans in Bryce
Bands of Southern Paiutes once lived
near Bryce Canyon; they hunted and fished on the plateau, while living in the
warmer valleys. The otherworldly
appearance of this place led the Paiute Indians to believe that the hoodoos had
once been evil creatures who could transform themselves into people – until
Coyote (frequently the “Trickster” in folk stories of the Southwest) changed
them all into stone. Coyote left them
frozen in place, like Lot’s wife in the Bible. In 1923, President Warren G. Harding
set aside Bryce Canyon as a national monument; it received national park status
in 1928. The park was named after the
early settler, Ebenezer Bryce, who described the area as ‘a hell of a place to
lose a cow.’
Major Landmarks
Happily, the weather was much improved at lower elevations, and we were able to walk part of the Rim Trail. There were nice views from Sunrise and Sunset Points. We had hoped to hike the Navaho Loop Trail, which descends into the amphitheater, but the steep trail was just a muddy (slippery) mess.
We stopped for lunch at one of those towns – Escalante. Escalante was settled in 1876 by Mormon pioneers who named the town after the river running through the valley. Lunch was BBQ and beans, a regular cowboy meal, served in an old theater that has been converted to a multi-use building. The owner entertained us with giant screen photographs taken in nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE NATIONAL MONUMENT
The Monument had three distinct units;
from west to east: Grand Staircase,
Kaiparowits Plateau, and Canyons of the Escalante. The Grand Staircase is named for the
series of plateaus that descend from Bryce Canyon south toward the Grand
Canyon, marked by vertical drops at the Pink Cliffs, Grey Cliffs, White Cliffs,
Vermilion Cliffs and Chocolate Cliffs.
The Kaiparowits Plateau, at 9,000 feet elevation, is the highest,
wildest, most arid, most remote part of the monument. It’s chock-full of
fossils from mammals that lived at the time when dinosaurs still ruled;
vertebrate fossils are very rare finds.
Canyons of the Escalante is a rugged, desolate paradise. It’s
the rocky bones laid bare after the Escalante River gnawed through earth's
flesh, leaving narrow canyons, towering walls and stunning grottoes.
ANASAZI STATE PARK AND MUSEUM
The Anasazi State Park and Museum is
located in Boulder, long-known as the last frontier in Utah. This high-elevation settlement was so
isolated that, until 1935, mail was delivered on horseback and fresh milk was
brought in on mules. First settled in
1894, the town was named for the volcanic boulders scattered across the slopes
of nearby Boulder Mountain.
Anasazi State Park and Museum takes
visitors back in time to 1050 AD, when the Fremont and Kayenta Anasazi occupied
the area. About 250 people once lived at
this site, making it one of the largest Anasazi communities west of the
Colorado River.
The park is focused around the
reconstructed ruins of an ancient Anasazi village, known as the Coombs Village Site, located directly
behind the museum. The village is believed to have been occupied from 1160 AD
to 1235 AD. There is a self-guided trail
through the village, and interpretive signs explain various features of the
village and the culture of the people who once lived there. The museum houses examples of Anasazi pottery
and other artifacts.
The best part of our visit came later
– we adjourned to the old schoolhouse for a delightful hour with archaeologist Larry Davis, a former Glen
Canyon boatman and the first director (now retired) of the Anasazi Museum. He brought along an atlatl and other
artifacts for show and tell. He even
showed us how to start a fire without matches.
The history lesson was excellent, but Davis himself was a riot –
reminiscent of Jonathan Winters.
Leaving Boulder, we headed over the
mountain to the little town of Torrey, the eastern gateway to Scenic Byway
12. The town was settled in the 1880s
and named after Col. Jay Torrey, on of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Our first (and only) stop in Torrey was at
the Flute shop – an unexpected spot in the middle of nowhere. We spent a fascinating hour with the owner,
learning all about handmade North American flutes. We spent a few dollar, too; gotta support the
local economy.
CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK
Capitol Reef National Park is a
geological wonder: hundreds of millions
of years of history are contained in this long, narrow park. It encompasses almost all of the 100-mile
long Waterpocket Fold, a massive warp in the earth’s crust - a rippling river
of red rock. The Waterpocket Fold is a classic monocline, a
fold with one very steep side in an area of otherwise nearly horizontal rock
layers. It is an eroded jumble of
colorful cliffs, massive domes, soaring spires, stark monoliths, twisting
canyons, graceful arches, and huge rocky amphitheaters.
How was the Waterpocket Fold created?
The Waterpocket Fold formed between 50
and 70 million years ago when a major geologic shift in western North American
reactivated an ancient buried fault.
When the fault moved, the overlying rock layers were pushed up, bent and
draped into the monocline. Almost 10,000 feet of sedimentary
strata here record nearly 275 million years of history. Ancient environments revealed in the rock
include rivers and swamps, Sahara-like deserts, and shallow oceans. Most of the erosion that carved today’s
landscape occurred within the last 20 million years. Today, both water and wind, along with the
pull of gravity, continue to shape Capitol Reef’s domes, arches and canyons.
Humans in Capitol Reef
The ‘pockets’ of the Waterpocket Fold
are natural basins capable of holding rainwater and snowmelt. It was these waterpockets, along with the
fertile floodplains of the Fremont River and area wildlife, that attracted early
human settlers as early as 300 B.C. Farmers and hunter-gatherers lived here for a
thousand years, followed later by the Paiute Indians, who called this place
“The Land of the Sleeping Rainbow.”
Several hundred years passed before
Capitol Reef saw permanent human habitation again. In the 1880s, Mormon settlers established a
community near the Fremont River and planted crops and orchards. The early pioneers provided the park’s
namesake: “capitol” for the white domes of Navajo Sandstone that resemble the
capitol dome in Washington DC, and “reef” for the rocky cliffs that are a
barrier to travel, like an ocean reef. These early settlers lived here for
less than 100 years, as President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed the area a
national monument in 1937. Congress
designated Capitol Reef a national park in 1971.
Major Landmarks
Waterpocket Fold, the main feature of the park, is the name of
a nearly 100-mile-long fold in the earth’s surface. Entering
the park from the west gives a most impressive view of the 1,000-foot-high
stone barrier into which erosive forces have sculpted canyons, mesas, buttes
and mazes.
The Gifford Homestead is an historic Mormon homestead, including a
farmhouse that is part museum, part country store. A peek into the buildings here gives an idea
of what the lives of the pioneers were like in the early 1900s.
The wash narrows until the walls close in and the trail gets tight. In this short, enclosed section of the streamway, the walls are less than 15 feet apart and the waters, when flowing, cover all of the canyon floor.
JOHN WESLEY POWELL RIVER HISTORY MUSEUM
**********
DEAD HORSE POINT STATE PARK
CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK
How was Canyonlands created?
Some 320 million years ago,
Canyonlands was a basin which was repeatedly flooded by seawater from an
adjacent ocean. Flooding was followed by
evaporation and an accumulation of salts.
Meanwhile, debris from erosion of the nearby mountain range added layers
of dark shale to the basin area. Over the next 10 million years, layers
of limestone, sandstone and more shale were deposited. But, by about 10 million years ago, the
forces of erosion stated to gain ground when tectonic forces pushed the
Colorado Plateau skyward, making it vulnerable.
Since then, at least one vertical mile of rock has been stripped away by
the waters of the Green and Colorado rivers.
The fantastically carved spires, fins and cliffs that make up the region
today are the result of the tireless and ongoing clash between rock time and
the elements.
Humans in Canyonlands
Paleo-Indian cultures lived in this
area as far back as 11,500 B.C.; they were followed by the Ancestral Puebloans planted
crops and built villages. The Ancestral
Puebloans left their mark on Canyonlands.
Throughout the park, there are painted and carved scenes of hunting and
harvesting, stylized figures and abstract designs left by ancient artists
working in stone for purposes that remain unclear.
John Wesley Powell explored the area
by river in 1869 and 1871; by the late 1800s, cattle ranching was big business
in southeastern Utah and Canyonlands was used by cattle rustlers and
robbers. Outlaws such as Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid had a favorite hideout here and were known to hide their
loot in the jumbled rocks and small pockets.
Those days passed, and in September 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson
signed legislation preserving Canyonlands as a national park.
Major Landmarks
MOAB
Moab is a laid-back city wedged
between Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.
It is an old Mormon settlement surrounded by wilderness – towering red rock
on two sides and the La Sal Mountains on a third. Moab has changed over the years from a desert
outpost to a tourist center – a motley collection of chain stores and artists’
shops. It’s a great location for
exploring the nearby parks.
ARCHES
NATIONAL PARK
Arches National Park contains the
world’s largest concentration of stone arches; it is home to more than 2,500
natural sandstone arches, ranging in size from 3 to 300 feet wide. Towering spires, soaring pinnacles, huge
sandstone fins and massive balanced rocks complement the arches, creating an
amazing assortment of landforms in a relatively small area. And all of this comes in vibrant colors –
red, orange, white, yellow and more. Arches is a park of
contradictions. Like pieces of fine
pottery, the arches stand in fragile impermanence amid a rugged landscape. Bearing the imprint of time and the elements,
they will eventually surrender to the forces of gravity and water.
How were the arches formed?
The formation of arches began 300
million years ago when saltwater from a nearby ocean flooded the area. The water evaporated, leaving a deposit of
salt. Repeated flooding and evaporation
left deposits that, over many millions of years, became thousands of feet
thick. Over time, the sediments became rock,
in some places more than a mile thick.
The enormous weight of this rock caused the salt, which is somewhat
elastic, to flow deep underground. In
the process, domes, faults and anticlines (upfolds of the earth with cores of
salt) were formed. At some point, the deposition of rock
slowed and erosion began in earnest. It
is estimated that during the last 10 million years, erosion has stripped away
more than 5,000 vertical feet of rock.
This exposed cracks in the rock allowing water to infiltrate and
dissolve the salt, and the salt valleys began to collapse, setting the stage
for the formation of arches.
Human History
In the 1920s, several individuals had
a hand in pushing for Arches to be named a national park. One was a prospector impressed with the
beauty of the area, another was a railroad man, and others were local Moab
residents who wanted to ensure the area was preserved. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover signed an
executive order that established Arches as a national monument. In 1968, the pioneering writer Edward
Abbey immortalized then-empty Arches National Monument in Desert Solitaire, his classic account of two seasons spent there as
a park ranger. In those days, Arches was
just a dusty backwater inhabited by a few old cowboys, desert castaways and a
handful of tourists who’d made a wrong turn somewhere. Abbey admired Arches’ beauty, but considered
its remoteness to be its greatest attribute.
Unwittingly, he helped start a tourist boom that continues to this
day. Arches became a national park in
1971, and it’s not lonely anymore.
Major Landmarks
The road through Arches passes some
spectacular natural sculptures, formed by the forces of wind and water. The brown and black patches are “desert
varnish,” a conglomeration of windblown clay and oxidized manganese and
iron. The stunted trees are junipers and
pinon pines (which produce pine nuts).
There are other famous rock formations
in the park besides its namesake arches. A couple of these are about a
mile from the park entrance. The
formation to the left is called the Three
Gossips. To the right is Sheep Rock -- geologists think that it
might have been the right leg of an enormous double arch, long fallen – but we'll
never know. The policeman-in-the-trunk scene from Thelma and
Louise was shot here.
The North and South Windows together are sometimes known as the Spectacles. These two arches stand side by side, though separated by some distance, cut from the same sandstone fin. A large “nose” separates the arches visually from the southwest, made of a gigantic fin remnant over 100 feet wide.
Double Arch is the tallest arch (112 feet) in the park. It takes its name because of it consists of two arches that share the same stone as a foundation for both of their outer legs. Double Arch was formed by downward water erosion from atop the sandstone, rather than from side-to-side water erosion.
Located in the Devil’s Garden area of the park, Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch are an easy hike from Landscape Arch. Pine Tree Arch frames a classic view of blue skies and red rocks. Tunnel Arch is a peculiar tunnel formation carved in the sandstone.
The whole Windows area is full of unique and captivating stone formations, with many arches among them. It would be easy to spend a week just in this awe-inspiring two square miles.
EDGE OF CEDARS STATE PARK AND MUSEUM
Throughout the museum, murals created
by Bluff, Utah, artist Joe Pachak reproduce rock art panels of San Juan County.
The Spirit Windows murals include
some images that can no longer be seen because they are beneath the waters of
Lake Powell.
Leaving Blanding, we headed south toward the town of Bluff, expecting an uneventful ride through the desert. While it’s true that there were no big events, there was much wonderful scenery.
MONUMENT VALLEY NAVAJO TRIBAL PARK
Monument Valley showcases some of the
Southwest’s’ most striking and recognizable landscapes of sandstone buttes,
mesas and spires. Its solitary buttes
and mesas act as sentinels, silently guarding the arid desert. Monument Valley has been the backdrop for
more Western films than any other U.S. location and provides perhaps the most
enduring and definitive images of the American West. The valley is not a valley in the
conventional sense, but rather a wide flat, sometimes desolate landscape,
interrupted by the crumbling formations rising hundreds of feet into the air,
the last remnants of the sandstone layers that once covered the entire
region. The area lies entirely within
the Navajo Indian Reservation on the Utah/Arizona border; the state line passes
through the most famous landmarks, which are concentrated around the border
near the small settlement of Goulding.
Goulding was established in 1923 as a trading post, and
provides basic visitor services. In
1921, Harry Goulding and his young bride Leone (nicknamed Mike) purchased 640
acres next to Monument Valley. They spent their first years trading with the
Navajo people out of their tent. In 1928, the Gouldings completed construction
of an old stone trading post with an apartment in the upstairs. The depression years made things tough for the Navajos and the Gouldings. Harry and Mike heard that a movie director, John Ford, was looking for a place to film a western movie. Harry took photos of the Monument Valley area to John Ford, who fell in love with the area. Within a couple of weeks, filming of the classic, award winning "Stagecoach" movie began. The lead actor of the film was the young John Wayne. Both John Ford and John Wayne returned again and again for other films.
The original trading post building has
been converted into a museum filled with photographs and memorabilia from the
Goulding’s stay. The mission of Goulding’s Trading Post Museum is to
enlighten and entertain visitors with insights into a way of life that is
quickly passing into memory and to educate visitors to appreciate and respect
the local Navajo and their way of life.
Major Landmarks
There is only one main road through
Monument Valley, US 163, which links Kayenta, AZ with US 191 in Utah. The
stretch approaching the AZ/UT border from the north gives the most famous image
of the valley, and possibly of the whole Southwest - a long straight empty road
leads across flat desert towards the 1,000-foot-high stark red cliffs on the
horizon, curving away just in front.
The highway cuts through the mesas
at Monument Pass, near which several dirt tracks leave both east
and west and crisscross the red sandy landscape, offering a more close-up
appreciation of the rock formations. Three
of the valley's most photographed peaks are East and West Mitten Buttes, and
Merrick Butte.
Other well-known sights were named by folks with vivid imaginations. Here are Sleeping Bear and Sitting Hen ...
... and here are Stagecoach, Rabbit and Castle Butte.
Others surely have names, but we were
too busy looking to take many notes.
Here are some anonymous scenes – you can name them anything you like!
PAGE, ARIZONA
The town of Page began as the
construction camp for the Glen Canyon Dam and its giant hydroelectric plant on
the nearby Colorado River. Today, with a
population of 8,000, Page is the only city on Lake Powell. There are shops, all kinds of services, and
the John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum.
LAKE POWELL – GLEN CANYON RECREATION AREA
Glen Canyon has been home to people
for thousands of years. Archaic and
prehistoric Indian cultures roamed and lived in the canyons. Later, a panorama
of explorers (including John Wesley Powell), miners, ranchers, historic Indian
tribes, and others left their mark here. In more recent times, a few hardy
homesteaders, river runners, and uranium miners have lived, worked, or played
in and around Glen Canyon – said by some to be more beautiful than the Grand
Canyon. Everything changed with the
construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966. The Glen Canyon Dam, built as a power
project, flooded 186 miles of the canyon.
It took 11 years for the lake to fill, creating Lake Powell. The rising waters of the Colorado River
covered acres of diverse and beautiful lands, as well as innumerable grottoes,
slot canyons, oases and sites sacred to the Native Americans.
Lake Powell, named for John Wesley
Powell, is now the centerpiece of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It seems unlikely that the great explorer
would be pleased by this honor. The lake has nearly 2,000 miles of shoreline
and a surface area of 161,000 acres; it is the second-largest man made lake in
the USA, after Lake Mead. It is over 500
feet deep in places, the product of a score of rivers draining large portions
of four states. It is indeed a beautiful
lake, but we should never forget the sunken Atlantis that was sacrificed to
create it.
We arrived at our lodging on the south
shore of Lake Powell in time to see the red rocks glowing in the setting sun
across the Wahweap Marina. In the early
hours of the next morning, we departed the marine for the 2.5 hour, 50-mile
cruise to Rainbow Bridge.
The boat ride was beautiful – Lake
Powell’s shoreline is an endless variety of shapes and colors.
Occasionally we passed other boats,
mostly houseboats enjoying the water and the scenery. At the new Antelope Point Marina, we slowed
to admire some million-dollar houseboats – looks like a fun way to spend a week
or two.
At the end of the cruise, there still
was no sign of Rainbow Bridge. The lake
water level is quite low, so we had a bit of a hike to see the bridge. Not a problem – it’s a beautiful walk up
Forbidden Canyon.
RAINBOW
BRIDGE
Rainbow Bridge extends 290 feet into
the sky and 275 feet across Bridge Canyon.
As the world’s largest known natural bridge, it is sometimes listed as
one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It was designated a National Monument in
1910, by President Williams H. Taft – soon after the Douglas - Cummings
expedition "discovered" the natural stone bridge in 1909. The term
"discovered" is used loosely because Native American peoples knew
about the bridge's existence for centuries.
It is a place that is sacred to them, and many tribes have tales, myths,
and legends surrounding the bridge.
Rainbow Bridge is an isolated site on
lands traditionally used by Navajo, Southern Paiute, San Juan, Ute, Kaibab
Paiute, White Mesa Ute, and Hopi peoples.
Ancestral Puebloans and earlier indigenous people also lived in and
around the Rainbow Bridge area.
Hiking here is limited due to the fact that the bridge is still
considered a sacred site and it is surrounded by Navajo Tribal Lands. We felt privileged just to stand and admire it ...
NAVAJO HERITAGE VILLAGE
After a magical day on the lake, we
visited the Navajo Heritage Village Center for a chance to see several
traditional Navajo homes and other structures.
We crowded into a very warm Hogan for
a demonstration of Navajo rug-weaving and a cultural presentation by a village
elder.
Lastly, we headed back outside for an
exhibition of Navajo hoop dancing – by four brothers and the daughter of the
eldest brother. They have won numerous
contests a pow-wows, and we were quite impressed with their performance for us.
Two videos of the dancers ...
ANTELOPE SLOT CANYON
Few geological formations are as
picturesque and awe-inspiring as Antelope Canyon, a magnificent slot canyon
just east of Page in Northern Arizona. With tall winding walls, it’s a
monumental sandstone sculpture. A photographer’s
dream, the canyon is known for its wave-like structure and the light beams that
shine directly down into the openings of the canyon, creating a supernatural
appearance. In some places, the narrow
passageway can accommodate only a few people, who can stand with a hand on each
wall.
Antelope Canyon is the product of
millions of years of water erosion. In fact, the Navajo name for Upper Antelope
Canyon is “Tse' bighanilini,” which means "the place where water runs
through rocks." Once home to herds of pronghorn antelope, the canyon now
lies within the territory of the Navajo Nation and draws nature-lovers near and
far for its remarkable, mysterious beauty. The canyon walls climb 120 feet
above the streambed, making it a cathedral of red-hued, swirling sandstone.
Antelope Canyon is a popular location
for photographers and sightseers, and a source of tourism business for the
Navajo Nation. It has been accessible by tour only since 1997, when it became a
Navajo Tribal Park. All visits must be made through a licensed tour
operator. Our guide was Tim, a Navajo
who was very knowledgeable about the canyon as well as an ace photographer who
tried to help us get decent pictures in a challenging environment.
He led us through Upper Antelope
Canyon; its entrance looks more like a cave than a canyon. Its entire length is at ground level,
requiring no climbing – just lots of twists and turns and unbelievable
beauty. We’re saving the Lower Canyon
for another day.
Road Scholar Program #2814Z Final Exam
- The
five National Parks we visited are located in which physiographic
province?
A.
Appalachian Highlands
B.
Basin and Range
C.
Colorado Plateau
D.
Canadian Shield.
- Lake Powell is:
A.
A large reservoir backed up
behind the Glen Canyon dam
B.
A lake formed during the last
ice age by a continental glacier
C.
A geologic curiosity not
completely understood today
D.
About the same age as the
sphinx.
- The term for an erosional remnant, or
pillar of rock, of “fantastic” shape is:
A.
Voodoo
B.
Hoodoo
C.
To Do
D.
Honey Do
- Bryce Canyon is actually:
A.
The largest canyon in the U.S.
B.
A large volcanic dike
C.
The eroded edge of a high
plateau
D.
The current location of several
large fresh water lakes.
- The tendency of harder rocks to form
cliffs and softer rocks to form slopes is called:
A.
Uneven deposition
B.
Differential erosion
C.
Metamorphism
D.
A “liberal plot” by many talk
radio personalities.
- The Navajo Sandstone exposed in Zion
National Park was deposited:
A.
In a continental desert
environment as sand dunes
B.
As deep-sea floor deposits
C.
Around the margins of a barrier
reef
D.
All at once.
- The
major geologic structure giving Capital Reef National Park its distinctive
scenery is:
A.
The Water Cooler fault
B.
The Waterpocket Fold
C.
Still unnamed due to its size
D.
The Hurricane Cliffs.
- The
three types of rock are:
A.
Igneous, metaphysical, and
sedimentary
B.
Metallic, salty, and sentient
C.
Lava, carbonate, and mud
D.
Igneous, sedimentary, and
metamorphic.
- The
majority of communities in Southern Utah were settled by:
A.
Mennonites
B.
Mormon pioneers
C.
Amish bachelors looking for
wives
D.
Southern Paiutes looking for
work.
- A fault is:
A.
A personal shortcoming
B.
Nothing to do with geology
C.
A fracture in the rock along
which movement has occurred
D.
Something predicted by
mathematics, but never observed in nature.
BONUS
QUESTION: What is Utah’s State Snack?
Answers: 1(C), 2 (A), 3(B), 4(C), 5(B), 6(A), 7(B), 8(D),
9(B), 10 (C). Bonus: Green Jello
Scoring: 9-10 Geo genius
7-8 Only occasionally napping
5-6 Hopefully enjoyed food on the trip
3-4 Try again next year
1-2 Road Scholar also has golf trips
