We visited the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Utah.
This museum focuses on Puebloan peoples and artifacts from AD 825 to 1225, and has a 1,000-year-old underground kiva that can be entered.
The exterior of the museum:
Museum exhibits:
The Puebloan great house:
Info sign:
Great house:
An info sign:
Enter with caution; yes, people are encouraged to climb down into the kiva:
Inside:
A twofer: we visited Bears Ears and Natural Bridges National Monuments.
Bears Ears National Monument is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It is a large area of 1.36 million acres of forests and such.
It is named for the distinctive mountains:
We visited a ranger station:
But the main focus of this trip was to visit the Natural Bridges National Monument, administered by the National Park Service (NPS). it is entirely surrounded by Bears Ears NM:
Its visitor center:
This monument features three natural bridges, basically holes in rocks much like arches. What’s the difference? Basically a natural bridge spans an erosion valley, and an arch doesn’t. Or put another way, a natural bridge is caused by running water, and an arch by seeping moisture.
The first bridge viewpoint:
An info sign:
The bridge is a little difficult to spot:
A closer view:
We then stopped for a picnic lunch at a nice shelter:
On to the second bridge:
And the last one:
We drove our truck around the Monument Valley tribal park. Fun bumpy dirt and rock roads, interesting mesas, and more. If you’ve ever seen a Western movie, you’ve seen Monument Valley.
(The music is titled “Monumental Journey”, so seemed appropriate!)
We drove around the Monument Valley Tribal Park in our truck.
The Navajo seal and statue outside the entrance:
Looking down at some of the monument rocks and road from the visitor center:
It’s a fairly rough dirt road:
Our truck at one of the viewpoints:
At John Ford’s Point, the man on a horse; he sits out there for people to take photos, or people can sit on his horse as a photo op:
Another horse; they seemed to be training it:
Our truck:
We visited Goosenecks State Park in Utah:
This is a smallish park, overlooking where the San Juan River makes a series of tight turns:
Look closely; what do you see in the water?
Rafting boats:
There are some no-hookup campsites with great views:
On the way back to our coach, we did a quick side trip to the fascinating Mexican Hat rock:
And stopped at Forrest Gump point, an iconic location from the movie:
Standing in the road for a selfie is a popular pastime; we saw lots of people there every time we went past:
Another very nice Utah state park is Goblin Valley State Park. It features thousands of uniquely-shaped “goblins” of eroded sandstone.
The entrance sign, with Wild Horse Butte in the background:
A small visitor center as part of the entrance station:
A relief map of the area:
A paper map. A nice feature of this park is that the Valley of the Goblins is free-range; there are no designated paths, and you are allowed to walk anywhere (but no climbing on the goblins, of course):
Wild Horse Butte:
The Three Sisters:
Part of Valley of the Goblins; some people for scale:
People suck, exhibit #1: naughty people climbing on goblins:
People suck, exhibit #2: we picked up some garbage:
We enjoy visiting state parks in addition to national parks; they are often just as nice, and less busy.
One such was Dead Horse Point State Park near Moab, Utah.
On how the park got its name, quoting from the website:
Dead Horse Point is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. The peninsula is connected to the mesa by a narrow strip of land called the neck. There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.
According to one legend, around the turn of the century, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.
A cow by a sign on the way to the park:
More cows:
The Dead Horse Point State Park sign:
A little lending library by the visitor center:
Visitor center:
View:
Info sign:
Ponds:
Colorado River:
Once again we went back to Arches National Park, for one last time (for now). This time, we headed to The Windows, a part we quickly visited on the first day. But this time we did some hiking to the various arches.
The entrance sign again:
Animal sculptures by the visitor center:
Info signs for The Windows:
The Windows from the start of the trail:
Heading towards an arch:
A small arch off to the side:
An interesting tree:
North Window arch:
View through the arch:
Under the arch:
Turret Arch:
South Window Arch:
North and South Window Arches:
Turret Arch:
Wedding couple:
A parking lot sign caught my eye:
A fun closer view of it:
North and South Window Arches:
Double Arch trail:
We went back to Arches National Park the next day, driving straight to the end of the park, to do the Landscape Arch hike. This is a fairly easy 1.9 mile (3.1 km) stroll along a mostly flat gravel and sand path, though there were some short steep hills.
The line of cars to get through the entrance station; we continue to believe that all parks should have an express line for people with park passes; most of the holdup is due to people paying and/or asking questions:
Looking downhill at the entrance station and switchbacks:
Rocks:
The parking area for the Landscape Arch and Devils Garden hikes:
Info on the trail, and also how the fins are formed:
Start of the hike:
A first look at the Landscape Arch; a little hard to see against the backdrop of rocks:
Info:
Closer:
Easier to see with sky behind it:
Another nearby arch:
Jenn taking a picture of me:
The path used to go under the arch, but that is closed since part of it collapsed:
On the way back, we took a half-mile side path to Pine Tree arch:
And the Tunnel arches:
Back at the start of the trail:
Afterwards, we had a picnic dinner at a nice spot:
We were rather hot, but had come prepared with cooling headbands; I kinda look like a hippie:
Finally, some fins:
We had an afternoon timed-entry ticket for Arches National Park, so went there a second time, this time going to the visitor center:
Some animal sculptures outside:
Relief map:
Visitor center:
Rocks:
A short hike to Sand Dune Arch, nestled amongst rock fins:
Arch:
Skyline Arch:
We stopped in a nice picnic area:
And had a picnic dinner at a very secluded table:
On a whim, we decided to head down a dirt road (I had previously checked it on the map):
It led to the Tower Arch trailhead:
We then continued along the road, leaving the park via the “secret” back entrance to the park:
Salt Valley Road, via public BLM land; you could avoid the timed entry requirement by coming in this way, though it is several miles of rough dirt road, so not for the faint of heart or non-4WD vehicles:
Back to the highway:
