Eastern Utah

Arches National Park has over 2000 red stone arches, big and small, open to the sky and hidden in stone, some growing more open, some collapsing.  Ancient pockets of salt dissolve with erosion, leaving behind rounded rock formations which often open up as arches here.  We loved this park, coming back a second day to hike further among the surreal red rock fins, straight walls, arches and pinnacles.

The park also has many balanced rocks of harder capstone remaining atop softer sandstone that erodes faster.

Landscape Arch, the longest in the park, has a span of 306 feet and is only five feet thick at the thinnest part since tons of rock fell off its underside in 1991.

Canyonlands National Park is also near Moab, Utah.  We have been to a number of canyons, but they are each a bit different, each unique in some way.  Here we wandered around the Island in the Sky, a plateau nearly 2000 feet above the Colorado River that runs through the park.  Far below on the White Rim, a 4 wheel drive only dirt road wound for miles, luring intrepid bikers and the occasional truck (not mine though).

Upheaval Dome is really a depression, perhaps caused by dissolving salt deposits below it.  I discount the meteor theory, having seen Meteor Crater in Arizona which is round and uniform.  This is not a crater.

Look how deep the river has cut into the flats.

Dead Horse Point State Park features another point reached by a narrow neck of land just wide enough for the road.  Cowboys used to trap wild horses on this point to capture the best ones.  Some died on the point far above the river and the water they needed.

Indian Petroglyphs

Suddenly another problem surfaced--something in the trailer brakes malfunctioned, causing the camper brakes to seize up and buck the whole rig like a bronco.  An RV repair guy was sure it was the truck trailer brake controller.  The Ford garage was sure it was in the trailer brake system.  And we were panicked at having another problem that could have killed us.  The brakes seizing happened in out-of-the-way places where we would not get hit, but they worked on I 70 where it would have been disastrous.  Sunday after church in Moab where the entire congregation of 15 people prayed for us, God sent us an angel.  He was grease stained as mechanics sometimes are and had only one hand, but he diagnosed the problem as trailer power cord shorting out.  He fixed it, checked the wheels and greased them, and charged us only $50, on a Sunday no less.  We paid him $75, of course, and told him he was our angel of mercy.   God has truly been protecting us this trip.