Our Great North America Trip: Arizona: Petrified Forest; Painted Desert; Canyon de Chelly; Monument Valley; Antelope Canyon; Grand Canyon-North Rim. Utah: Coral Sand Dunes; Zion NP; Grand Staircase Nat. Monument; Capitol Reef NP. (May 23-30)

 

Petrified Forest, Arizona

Ranger talk

 

The actual thing:  225 million years old trees

Petroglyphs from pre-Columbian times

Painted Desert, AZ

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “Chay”) is in north-west Arizona

 

There are cliff dwellings; we followed a trail down into the Canyon to see “The White House” close-up

In front of “The White House”

 

This monolith is called Spider Woman

 

Monument Valley, famous from old Westerns  (John Wayne country)

“The Mittens” in the background

 

Antilope Slot Canyon; if you see this narrow opening you don’t think you can actually get in….

 

but we did…..

 

If you look closely you can see an eagle head in the sand stone.   Eleven people (mostly french tourists) drowned  12 years ago in this canyon because of a sudden flash flood that came rushing thru at a speed of 80 miles an hour.

 

Horse Shoe Bend; the Colorado River – on its way to the Grand Canyon - meanders here around a huge rock

 

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon

 

Our long hike down into the Grand Canyon towards “Roaring Springs” almost a 1,000 meters below the rim

 

A flowering yucca

 

At Roaring Springs after descending from 2,500 to about 1,500m

 

In southern Utah, on our way to Zion NP, we detoured to see these Pink Sand dunes

 

Zion Nat. Park: this is Angels Landing; we climbed to the top, starting at 1,300m and summiting at 1,760m

 

The trail to the top is up this cliff (if you enlarge this picture you can see people going up the trail)

On top of Angels Landing

 

Water gets through porous sandstone as explained here….

 

“Weeping Rock” weeps because of this

 

“Emerald Pool,” another well-known hike in Zion canyon

 

Checkerboard Mesa, at the east entrance of Zion NP

 

Grand Staircase Escalante Nat. Monument; this is the vast desert area with beautiful vistas we drove through, past Bryce Canyon (which we skipped) on our way to Capitol Reef Nat. Park

 

Anasazi Indian Village State Park: archeologists dug up this indian village from the 12th century

Burr Trail; we drove through this canyon; it is in the southern part of Capitol Reef NP

 

The pocked cliffs along Burr Trail