Thursday Arch Series

All stone this time, no metal. That's why the park has its name.

Monochrome

Black and white shots of the American west can be dramatic. Think Ansel Adams. He and I share a birthday but, um, the comparison ends there. And there is no point in considering a pattern since Kurt Cobain was born on the same date.

So, some attempts at B&W from Arches National Park. The improbable structure above is called Balancing Rock. No idea how it formed but it certainly suggests impermanence.

Do your own Rorschach test on the second pic. Some people thought of a lion, others of a Mesopotamian ruler. I think it looks like an English barrister with full wig who is about to unleash a mighty sneeze. And the third one? Maybe a microscopic illustration from a pathology textbook.     

Fiery Furnace, Or, Better You Than Me

 

There is a section of Arches National Park known as the Fiery Furnace, not because of its heat but due to the intense red color of the sandstone near sunset. As the signs indicate, you can go wander around the complex arrangement of stone fins and canyons but only with permission of the park rangers. You have to go along with them or prove you know what you are doing so they don't have to drag your sorry (and possibly deceased) butt out of there. 

The bottom picture gives some idea of what you are getting into but the link above makes the point much more clearly. I wouldn't go in there if the Seven Cities of Gold were inside offering to give me their debit cards and Trump promised to resign.   

Desert Critters

I'll be doing back-fill from the trip for a while but there's lots to show. 

We normally think of the desert being dry as James Bond's martini, but it it weren't for water all the fantastical shaping of rock would be impossible. We happened upon a little spring-fed stream that created its own ecosystem. This frog was as tiny as it was beautiful. A short distance onward brought us a more expected lizard. The two critters were near each other but a world apart, unlikely ever to meet.  

Arches National Park

There are only two U.S. National Parks that contain arches. One is outside my office window. It has a single example. This one in Utah has about 1,500. Nowhere else in the world like it, and the geology is complex. But there are so many more spectacular vistas. This post is limited to the arches themselves (including Delicate, Double, South Window, Sand Dunes, Skyline, and possibly Whatchamacallit Arch) but there are fins, walls, pinnacles and impossibly balancing boulders everywhere. We work hard when we travel. When to edit?

Canyonlands National Park today. And top photo courtesy of my constant travel companion.