Russell Lee, a staff photographer for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, took this photograph of a radiator cap in Laurel, Mississippi in November 1938.

Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997025265/PP/

Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

The sign at the trailhead says:

Trail to bridge: .6 mile (.97 km) – 500 foot (152 m) elevation change.

A strenuous hike rewards the adventurous with a closer view of Sipapu Bridge.  The trail leads to either a viewpoint partway down the canyon wall or to the canyon bottom where you can stand beneath one of the world’s largest natural bridges.

The trail contains two flights of stairs, three ladders, steep switchbacks, exposed bare rock, and stretches requiring the use of handrails.

Our final visit in the Moab area was to Canyonlands’ “Island in the Sky.”

The Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park is a mesa with sandstone cliffs that drop over 1,000 feet to the terrain below.  It is the easiest part of the park to visit, having many spectacular viewpoints at pullouts along the paved scenic roads.  At an average elevation of 6100 feet, it is the highest part of the park.  It includes about a dozen trails of varying lengths, some across the plateau as well as a few descending toward the rivers.

Selected Information Resources:Canyonlands National Park

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• The American Southwest

Our final hike in Arches National Park was a loop trail – 1 mile (1.6 km) – that includes three large arches.

The Windows – also known as the Spectacles – are two very large arches eroded from the same sandstone fin.  Individually, the two arches are named North Window and South Window.  Bearing left on the loop trail, North Window is the first arch that is reached.  Visitors can easily climb up and stand or sit under this massive arch.  Continuing on the trail around a large sandstone extension from the fin, the South Window can be viewed from  the trail. A short spur leads to the base of the sandstone fin. South Window is higher than North Window and not easily accessed.

The third large arch, Turret Arch, lies in a castle-like sandstone formation.  A moderately strenuous climb though its span yields a view of the Windows framed by Turret Arch.

Selected Information Resources:

Arches National Park.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• GORP
• The American Southwest

In this case, Park Avenue is a canyon in Arches National Park.  A  1 mile (1.6 km) trail leads through it between the Park Avenue parking area and the Courthouse Towers parking area.

Our September 27, 2011 hike started from and returned to the Court House Towers parking area, going up hill up the canyon and down hill on our return.  We turned back at the steepest part of the trail, a short section from the Park Avenue viewpoint and trailhead.

Park Avenue viewpoint is the first major stop in the park after the visitor center.

Most visitors pass by Park Avenue trail  on their way to other more popular features, stopping only at the viewpoints at either end to perhaps snap a few photos.  We saw few other hikers on our “stroll” along the dry wash that passes between the towering walls of the canyon.

Selected Information Resources:

Arches National Park.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• GORP
• The American Southwest

The Colorado and Green Rivers divide Canyonlands National Park into three districts – the Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze, with the rivers themselves listed by the National Park Service as a fourth “district.”  Island in the Sky  is the easiest to visit and, thus, the most popular.  The Maze is more remote and the least accessible of the park’s districts.  The Needles is a 75 mile drive from Moab.  Most of the district’s features are found on its extensive trail system and four-wheel-drive roads.

The road to the Needles district passes through Newspaper Rock Recreational Site, location of a large collection of prehistoric petroglyph rock art.

Most of our September 26, 2011 exploration of the Needles was on the relatively short scenic drive and the 2.4 mile Slickrock Trail (a loop).

Selected Information Resources:

Canyonlands National Park

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• The American Southwest

Canyonlands National Park – A large region of rugged buttes, pinnacles, mesas and canyons south and west of Moab, Utah.  This was the second time we’ve hiked this 2 mile round trip trail.

Grand View Point is the southernmost spot on the high mesa of Canyonlands, Island in the Sky.  From the Grand View Overlook, the trail runs along the southern rim of the mesa, 1000 feet above the lower plateau, which is in turn carved into complex canyons by the convergence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

Selected Information Resources:

Canyonlands National Park

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• The American Southwest

After Landscape Arch, we went see some of the sights nearer to the entrance to Arches National Park.

It’s 9 miles (14.5 km) from the park entrance to the Balanced Rock parking area. There are four viewpoints along the way for parking, viewing some of the park’s extraordinary and unusual formations  and, at a couple of points, hiking.

• Park Avenue viewpoint – trail leads downhill through the “Park Avenue” canyon to Courthouse Towers viewpoint.
• La Sal Mountains viewpoint.
• Courthouse Towers viewpoint – we hiked up the canyon from this point and back later in our visit.
• Petrified Dunes viewpoint.

Balanced Rock is one of many popular rock formations in the park. From the parking lot, a short trail leads out to near the base and loops around it.  The height of the pillar and rock on top is about 128 feet (39 m).  The balancing rock is about the size of three school buses, estimated at 3577 tons.  During the winter of ‘75 – ‘76 a smaller companion balanced rock fell.  It had been called “Chip Off The Old Block.”

Selected Information Resources:

Arches National Park.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• GORP
• The American Southwest

Landscape Arch is one of the more popular attractions in Arches National Park.  Located in the Devils Garden area in the northern part of the park, the trailhead was only a short drive from our site in the Devils Garden Campground.  Landscape Arch is 1.5 miles from the trailhead.

It’s the longest arch in the park and according to The Natural Arch and Bridge Society, the longest natural arch in the world, laser measured in 2004 at 290.1 ± 0.8 feet (88.4 m).  Since 1991, three sandstone slabs have fallen from the thinnest section of the arch, resulting in closure of the trail that once passed below it.  Several other arches are accessible in the Devils Garden area.

Selected Information Resources:

Arches National Park.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• GORP
• The American Southwest

Our three night stay at Arches National Park was in the Devils Garden Campground. Eighteen miles from the park entrance, the campground is located in the middle of red sandstone fins, boulders and rocky hills, Utah juniper and pinion pines, yucca and prickly pear cacti.  The La Sal mountains can be seen in the distance. There are also a few arches nearby. One of them, Skyline Arch, was only a short walk and climb from our campsite, though climbing up into the arch itself was a bit of a stretch.

The nearest town, Moab, is 23 miles away, so there is very little light to pollute the night sky, making the campground a great place to view  the wonders of the night sky.

Like most U.S. national park campgrounds, Devils Garden has no hookups for water, electricity, or sewer.  Facilities do include potable water, picnic tables, and grills, but there are no showers.  There are 50 sites that can be reserved between March 1 and October 31.  This is a very popular campground and, for anyone who would like to camp here,  I would recommend making reservations.

Selected Information Resources:

Arches National Park.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• GORP
• The American Southwest

Our first hike of our 2011 visit to Arches National Park was the 3.0 mile (4.8 km) round-trip trek to Delicate Arch on September 21.  We had done this hike almost exactly 4 years before, so we knew what we were getting into.

The trail begins at the parking lot adjacent to the old Wolfe Ranch cabin.  A side trail near the cabin leads to some petroglyphs.

The Delicate Arch trail has very little shade.  Most of the trail is over open “slickrock” sandstone – a term given by early settlers because of the difficulty of their horses’ metal shoes getting traction on the sloping surfaces of the rock. There is some exposure to heights.  The trail can be a brutal hike during the summer, when temperatures can exceed 100°F (37.7°C).  The park service recommends at least a quart of water per person on this trail. Across the rock, the trail is marked by rock cairns.

We had planned the southwestern part of our trip for late September into October to take advantage of cooler weather.  The high temperature for our hike was probably in the low 70s.

The trail to Delicate Arch is a nice hike and I heartily recommend it for a spring or autumn hike, or  even an early summer morning hike provided you’re off the rock before the extreme heat of the day.

Selected Information Resources:

Arches National Park.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Discover Moab
• GORP
• The American Southwest

Over the years, we’d been through Grand Junction at least 4 times, but had never stopped there or visited any of the local attractions.  After this trip, Colorado National Monument will certainly be a place we would like to visit again.

Colorado National Monument, established May 24, 1911, is located just to the west of Grand Junction.  Part of the larger Colorado Plateau, the monument features canyons that cut deep into sandstone and even granite formation.  It is high desert country, with elevation in the park ranging from 4000 feet to nearly 7000 feet above sea level.  Summer temperatures are usually very hot, while nighttime winter temperatures can be extremely cold.  Precipitation is limited, with an annual average of just over 10 inches..

The monument has a lot of hiking trails, with varying length and difficulty – we took two moderately long hikes during our visit, managing to wander off of the Devil’s Kitchen trail into and unmarked area.  We also took the Monument Canyon Trail from the upper trailhead to the Coke Ovens overlook and back.  The lower portion of the train from the lower trailhead to Independence Monument and back is highly recommended for visitors looking to do only one hike.  It’s a 2.5 mile hike that follows the base of sandstone cliffs, offering views of towering rock formations and, in the fall, it’s the best trail to see desert bighorn sheep.

Photos from Colorado National Monument have been published on the Exit78 facebook page in the “Colorado National Monument” album.

Selected Information Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• The American Southwest
• USA Today Travel Tips

Karen’s Post  – Colorado National Monument

Leaving Rocky Mountain National Park on September 16, 2011, our next destination was several thousand feet lower and on the western side of the state – Grand Junction, Colorado.

About nine miles south of Estes Park on Colorado 7, we stopped to take pictures of the Chapel on the Rock – officially St. Catherine of Siena Chapel – on the grounds of Saint Malo Retreat Center.   The chapel  is built on an large piece of granite that the Colorado highway department once planned to dynamite to widen and straighten the adjacent highway.  Dedicated in 1936, the chapel was built from local stone hauled in by mule carts.

In November 2011, a fire heavily damaged portions of the St. Malo Retreat Center.  The chapel, several hundred feet away was not damaged.

Our drive for the day was about 300 miles.  The first part was on mountain 2-lane highways down to Interstate 70.  Traffic was quite light, certainly less than it would have been if we had gone through Boulder and along the foothills of the Front Range as we did in 2009.

I70 meanders up, down, around and through the Colorado mountains between Denver and and Grand Junction.  Our little motorhome did pretty good duty traveling over this road once again, though the CRV it was towing was 6 model years newer than the last time.

“The Eisenhower Tunnel, with a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet (3,401 m) and length of 1.7 miles (2.7 km), is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point along the Interstate Highway System.” (Wikipedia.)

We stopped in Vail for lunch and a stretch break.  Often, when there isn’t a rest area handy, we’ll take a break after an hour or two of driving by stopping at a “big box” store.  Most of them are large enough that we can loosen up by taking a couple of laps walking around inside the store.  In Vail, we stopped at WalMart and, once we were loosened up, went back out to the camper and had lunch in our camper.

Our next stop was a  rest area in Glenwood Canyon, a rugged and scenic canyon on the Colorado River. This area is one of the most scenic natural features along the U.S. Interstate Highway System.  Foot access is available for hiking a four rest areas in the canyon.  The highway through the canyon was one of the final pieces of the system to open to traffic and was one of the most expensive per mile constructed in the United States.  In its 12.5 mile length, there are three tunnels, 40 bridges and viaducts, and miles of retaining walls.  “Through a significant portion of the canyon, the eastbound lanes extend cantilevered over the Colorado River and the westbound lanes are suspended on a viaduct several feet above the canyon floor.” (Wikipedia)

The trip along I 70 was a gradual transition from high mountain forests and tundra west of Denver to the high desert of western Colorado and Utah.

We would be camping in the Grand Junction, 4,593 ft (1,397 m), area for the next 4 nights and would be in desert country for a good portion of the rest of the trip.

We visited Rocky Mountain National Park in September, largely because it’s the prime period for viewing North American elk (wapiti) in the park.

In late summer and early autumn, elk descend from the high country to mountain valley meadows for the annual mating season.  Bull elk compete with each other for the right to breed with a herd of females.  Although the competition is high, it’s mostly posturing for the females as actual fighting results in injury and depletes energy.

One of the best – and most popular –  areas for viewing the elk is Moraine Park.  The word “park” used in place names in the Colorado Rockies often refers to a valley or meadow.  In this instance, Moraine Park is a long, glacier formed valley, with broad meadows at the lower end.

A moraine is a accumulation of boulders, stones and other debris deposited by a glacier.  Aptly named Moraine Park is bounded by moraines on three sides.  On the north and south, the valley is enclosed by lateral moraines, formed when the glacier deposited debris along its side.  Debris at the east end of the valley formed a terminal moraine against a small mountain.

A two lane paved road to the Fern Lake trailhead runs along the south side of the Moraine Park meadow.  In the cool evenings of the elk mating season, portions of the road are often jammed with cars and pedestrians watching the elk – what we like to call a “critter jam.”

While we were down along Fern Lake Road several evenings to view the elk, we didn’t take our car.  We could have taken the hiker shuttle bus, but didn’t do that either.  Instead, we walked.

Moraine Park campground is situated on the northern lateral moraine and there is a trail that goes down the hill to the meadow.  When we visited in 2009, our campsite was right next to the trail, but, this year, that site was, unfortunately, reserved, so we had to settle for a site a little further away.

Selected Information Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

This was our second time on this trail segment, which runs from the Bear Lake parking area to Emerald Lake and connects with other Bear Lake area trails.  We had hoped to make it to Emerald Lake if our legs, and the weather, held out.  The weather had been iffy overnight and during the morning.  Trail Ridge Road had been closed closed the night before and remained closed due to snow for the first time in the season. With rain threatening, instead of a hike that morning, we went into Estes Park.  After lunch and walking around Estes Park town center a bit more, we headed back into the park to the Bear Lake area trailhead.

The trail we chose goes to a trio of subalpine lakes – Nymph, Dream, and Emerald – in upper Tyndall Gorge.  The trail is well maintained and rises steadily over most of it’s 1.8 mile  length.  Difficulty is easy to moderate, but can be more difficult for those not acclimatized to the altitude as it climbs to over 10,000 feet.  We had already been in Colorado a week, so the altitude was less of an issue than it might have been otherwise.

From the Bear Lake area trails parking lot (9,475 ft.), the trail climbs steady for 1/2 mile, then levels off at about 9, 700 feet at the south end of  small, lily pad covered Nymph Lake.  The trail begins climbing again in the forest on the north end of Nymph Lake and levels off again at Dream Lake, 1.1 miles from the trail head and at an elevation of 9,912′ ft.  Dream Lake is .35 miles long.  The trail passes along its west shore.

We had hoped to make it all the way to Emerald Lake, 1.8 miles from the trailhead and 10,090 feet above sea level, but we turned back at the north end of Dream Lake due to deteriorating weather conditions.  Weather in the high country can be unpredictable, even in the middle of summer, but this was the middle of September and we’d already had some rain on our hike.  We had rain gear with us. However, it was already 3:30 PM and light rain was falling again, so we decided against pushing on ahead.

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

On our four previous visits to Rocky Mountain National Park, we stayed one or more nights in the adjacent town of Estes Park. This time, we didn’t, as we were able to get reservations at Moraine Park Campground in the park for the duration of our planned visit.  As a result, we actually spent less time in Estes Park than any other visit – other than traveling through town and stops for fuel and groceries, just a short visit before and after lunch on September 15th, followed by an afternoon alpine hike back in the park.  It was an nice stroll along the street and into some of the shops – and much less crowded than our last visit on Labor Day weekend, 2009.

Estes Park, a town of just under 6,000 permanent residents, is a popular summer resort in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, though there are plenty of recreational opportunities during the rest of the year. Located at 7,522 feet above sea level, the town is at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Tourism has been a primary business for the town for most of its history.  Lodging includes The Stanley Hotel, inspiration for the setting of Stephen King’s novel The Shining.  (We stayed in the hotel during our 2001 visit.)

The word “park” used in place names in the Colorado Rockies often refers to a valley or meadow. Estes Park, then, originally referred to the valley and was named after town founder Joel Estes.

The town experienced severe damage in July 1982 from flooding resulting from the failure of Lawn Lake Dam.

Additional information on the Lawn Lake Dam Failure, July 15, 1982:

• KOA TV Channel 4 – YouTube, 1982 footage
• Wikipedia
• Town of Estes Park

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road (Wikipedia) crosses the park from Estes Park on the east to Grand Lake on the west. It is a segment of U.S. Highway 34 and is the highest continuous highway in the United States.  Crossing the Continental Divide at Milner Pass ((elev. 10,758 ft/3,279 m), it reaches its highest point at 12,183 ft (3,713 m), near Fall River Pass.

On this visit, the day we crossed on Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake and back started out cool, with precipitation predicted.  We ran into a little rain and quite a bit of fog, some of which rolled in when we were on the Tundra Communities Trail, which climbs a couple hundred feet, starting at about 12, 100 ft. elevation.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the gift shop next to Alpine Visitor Center – at Fall Creek Pass – at a little after 3 PM to take a break from the fog and get a cup of coffee. However, the gift shop was closed, as was the visitor center.  The temperature had dropped from the mid 50s when we were there earlier in the day to 35°F.

About three hours after we made it back to the camper, the park service closed the road.

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

On September 9, we visited Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument and Cripple Creek.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is located in Florissant Valley, a high mountain valley west of Pikes Peak.  The valley, fossil beds and national monument take their name from the nearby town of Florissant, Colorado.

In 1893, when the photograph on the right was taken, tourists had ready access to shale fossils and petrified wood.

“Early accounts describe the valley as being littered with petrified wood.  As word spread, the Florissant area became a popular tourist destination.  Exploitation, constant collecting, and thoughtless destruction continued for nearly 100 years.  There is no way to assess the damage done or the loss of rare scientific evidence during this period.” ¹

Our visit to the park included the small visitor center, the Petrified Forest Trail, and the Hornbek Homestead.

“Adeline Hornbek was not a typical homesteader.  In the 1970s, after the loss of two husbands and two homes, this single mother of four moved her family to the Florissant Valley.  At a time when women had few opportunities to own property, she filed a claim to homestead 160 acres here. Within seven years, Adeline had built a sizable house and nine outbuildings, and had acquired $4,000 worth of livestock.  On top of the daily work of homestead chores and raising children, she added a job at the general store in Florissant.”¹

Information and Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• University of California Museum of Paleontology
• Proctor Museum of Natural Science
• GORP
• Facebook

^__________

¹ from a park interpretive sign

…and it’s free to visit.

Until we visited it in 2004, I had no idea that Garden of the Gods was a Colorado Springs city park.  Most large cities have some nice parks, but few have parks with outstanding geologic features like Garden of the Gods.

We visited the park again this year.

Garden of the Gods Park started with a gift from the family of Charles Elliott Perkins, a former president of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad.  Perkins had purchased 480 acres of the current park for a summer home that was never built.  He died in 1907 with his children aware of his wish for the public to be able to enjoy the natural wonder.

A plaque in the park reads, “The Garden of the Gods.  Given to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of Charles Elliott Perkins in fulfillment of his wish that it be kept forever free to the public.”

Source of the name “Garden of the Gods” –

The name of the park dates back to August 1859 when two surveyors helping to set up nearby Colorado City were exploring the nearby areas. Upon discovering the site, one of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a “capital place for a beer garden.” His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.” The beer garden never materialized, but the name stuck.  –Wikipedia

Geologic formations –

The outstanding geologic features of the park are the ancient sedimentary beds of red, blue, purple, and white sandstones, conglomerates and limestone that were deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Pikes Peak massif. Evidence of past ages; ancient seas, eroded remains of ancestral mountain ranges, alluvial fans, sandy beaches and great sand dune fields can be read in the rocks. A spectacular shear fault can be observed where the Tower of Babel (Lyons Sandstone) contacts the Fountain Formation. There are many fossils to be seen: marine forms, plant fossils, and some dinosaur fossils.

The hogbacks, so named because they resemble the backs and spines of a pig, are ridges of sandstone whose layers are tilted. Instead of lying horizontally, some layers are even vertically oriented. Each hogback can range up to several hundred feet long, and the tallest (called North Gateway Rock) rises to a height of 320 feet (98 m) tall. A notable rock feature on this hogback, the Kissing Camels, appears to be two very large camels sitting face to face with their lips touching. –Wikipedia

Links:

• Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center
• Wikipedia
• City of Colorado Springs
• Garden of the Gods Trading Post
• Friends of Garden of the Gods

Our travel day was a short one from La Junta, Colorado, to Garden of the Gods Campground, a commercial campground near the Garden of the Gods park.

Even though we had been to Grand Teton National Park many times before, on this trip we explored some areas we had not been to before in the southeastern part of the park and just outside, in the Gros Ventre and Antelope Flats areas. They which yielded quite few opportunities for photographs from viewpoints different from what I had taken in the past including old log structures and the Mormon Row settlement.

Other photos include a large plane landing at Jackson against Grand Teton as a backdrop, Jackson lake, Signal Mountain, Chapel of the Transfiguration, moose resting along the Snake River near the Moose entrance to the park; Menor’s Ferry, Bill Menor’s cabin and store, and aspen fall colors.

__________

References and Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
  • Grand Teton National Park
  • Jackson Hole
  • Jackson, Wyoming
• Wyoming Tourism
• Wikitravel
• Grand Teton Lodge Company