Canyonlands, Bridges, and No Where To Go

We were going to go to Salt Lake City but up north they just got 14-18 inches of new snow and we said NO! I had no idea it snowed this much this late on a regular basis here. The weather reports out here are so different than at home in the East. We get a report for the local area that covers approximately 150 mile radius. Good enough. Here in Utah they break up the state into at least 4 areas and  sometimes 5. The weather is so different from each area. 70’s in the SE part of the state and 2 feet of snow in the North Central.  Oh Yeah, and the addresses. Our addresses are plain and simple (to us) like 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. Here the are addresses like 400 North 300 West. Well where in the heck is that? Even our GPS said Huh? We are still in the US, not in another country, so why are the addresses so different?

In the east we have to be careful deer in the road, and they can reek havoc on a motorist, but here, boulders encroach the road and so do cows.

  I thought when we saw a cow in the road the other day it was unusual, apparently not, they are everywhere. Open ranges are very common.

A quick stop at Newspaper Rock revealed many petroglyphs. Experts say that this could be away of sharing information, news, or it could be ancient graffiti.

Driving to Canyonland National Park we encountered our first 10% down grade and up grade on the way out. Good test for where we will be heading later on our trip, Canada and Alaska.

The road appears to just drop off.

 

 

 

Canyonland Nat’l Park – the name says it all.  Driving thru, the beginning is narrow with mountains on both sides with rock spilling down. You hope the rocks hold until you pass. 

Some of these boulders look like they recently fell leaving small rocks in the road.

 

The canyon opens up so far that Tommy and I keep saying the US is only 3000 miles wide and we swear we can see that far just here.Rock formations are again so different than they were just 60 miles ago. Many of these remind me of bakery cupcakes when the frosting is piled up high like a soft serve ice cream cone and the box lid came down on the frosting, squishing the top slightly.

Here is Wooden Shoe Arch. I was surprised a how much it did look like a wooden shoe.

Deafening winds are roaring through the canyons creating a haze in the distance from blowing red rock dirt. At times it appears to be smokey, like there is a forest fire near, but it is only the dry dirt being blown upward.  Chicago is noted for their winds but let me tell ya, they don’t have anything on this area of the country. Todays winds have been the worse we have experienced. Tommy’s hands were going numb from gripping the wheel. We would come to a hill that would block the wind, and when came to the end of the hill, watch out, a wind blast would throw you and it felt like you would be knocked off the road. Tommy had to be careful not  to over compensate. Hard driving day.

We were able to make it to the the Natural Bridges National Park. Due to the high winds we did not hike it. We took the easy route…. drive bys. They are beautiful. The difference between a natural bridge and a natural arch is….. the bridge has water going under it whereas an arch does not. 

It is dusk now and we are leaving the Natural Bridges National Park, our elevation is 8507 ft at Bears Ears and you can still see the dirt haze. It is also starting to snow, winds continue to blow, we are still in the open ranges - where cows roam the streets, and lucky us, we can’t find a campground.  We are about 1.5 to 2 hours from any town. Finally, at 9:30 pm, we pulled over on the side of the road to eat dinner and sleep. Lesson learned today. Don’t travel to close to dark away from towns. Well, if the primitive people and the early settlers could make it with caves and mud houses, we should survive the night in an RV.