July 2013 photographic memories of Utah’s Salt Lake City, Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks
A small taste of Arches National Park, Utah
Part II of III: A 3,300 mile journey of discovery through Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah
Click here for Part II photos. Click here for Part I photos.
By John & Jean Ryan
Utah’s capitol Salt Lake City, founded by Mormons who still have a strong presence there, was our next stop. We toured Temple Square, site of the Mormon temple, the Salt Lake tabernacle, the Mormon museums and other historical buildings. We also traveled to the State Capitol Building and Olympic Cauldron Park, site of the Olympic torch which was lit during the 2002 winter Olympics held there.
We continued on to Arches National Park, a park with natural formations of sandstone. As we entered the park, we passed the petrified dunes area and continued on to the red sandstone arches, spires and balanced rocks formed by years of weathering and erosion. How interesting it was to actually be in this park from which so many “calendar photos” of the beautiful sandstone arches originated.
Not far from Arches National Park is Canyonlands National Park. This park features deeply eroded canyons, created by the flow of the Colorado and Green Rivers, interspersed with sheer-sided mesas and other unusual rock formations. We were especially impressed as we viewed the “Island in the Sky” section, a mesa area of flat land miles long and miles wide where the surrounding terrain has been eroded leaving it “high in the sky.” Though not as vast as the Grand Canyon, the canyons here are still magnificent to behold!
Enroute to Capitol Reef National Park, we stopped in Hanksville, UT at Hollow Mountain, a real convenience store carved into a cave in the side of a big rock. Capitol Reef NP is so named for the reef-like cliffs rising 1000 feet above the Fremont River which are capped with white Navajo sandstone formations that have eroded and now resemble the dome of the U.S. Capitol. This park also contains remnants of a Mormon community which existed from 1888 until 1943. Here the Mormons farmed the valley fields and their apple trees remain today.
Posted: September 9th, 2013 under General News, Peru resident news/accomplishments, Travel Photos.