Blue Lagoon Traveler

  Sunday September 28 -  Just outside of Moab UT and just a bit past Arches National Park is Canyonlands National Park.  Since we were here, of course we went to see it.  After walking so much yesterday, we did a lot more driving and short sightseeing today, but we did take one incredible hike along the top of one of the Canyons and watched a storm roll in.  Canyonlands is Utah’s largest national park and it covers nearly 340,000 acres of high desert.  The park has both the Colorado River and Green River.  It has spectacular deep canyons, mesas, arches and spires.  I hope I caught some of their essence.   We took a hike down Grand View Point Trail .  It is a 1.8 mile trail that follows the canyon rim. Laura and I were WAY out on the edge of the rock.   Yes , Bob is contemplating life again. (He was great on this trip) I did not get as close to the edge as Laura! Yikes.  But there were spectacular views all along the hike. ...

Arches National Park has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world. There are over 2,000 documented arches in the park, ranging from sliver-thin cracks to spans greater than 300 feet (97 m).  It also has hundreds of spring pinnacles, massive rock fins and giant balanced rocks.  While we only spent one evening and one day here, we saw a lot.  But to truly get to know this park, it would take more than that. Laura and Bob keep coming back year after year.   We spent our time hiking and taking loads of pictures and just wondered at how the arches were formed and what type of peoples lived here.  Since it wasn’t part of our experience I won’t describe it here, but you can find out all of that at  https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm . First we saw Double Arch - one of Laura’s favorites.  It is 2 giant arches sharing the same stone base.  The larger opening is 148 feet wide and 104 feet tall making it the tallest arch in the park....