Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Red Rock Country






I don't know who the bicycle riders are, something I could have done maybe 40 years ago.
The first photo is in Sulphur Canyon just outside Capitol Reef National Park which Eliot and I really like because not being a signed trail their are very few hikers on it and it cuts through many layers of the Colorado Plateau. The middle picture is actually in Capitol Reef. This whole area is part of what's called the Colorado Plateau although most of it is in Utah, actually roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. It covers an area of 337,000 km (130,000 mi.) within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southern and eastern Utah, and northern Arizona. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries; the Green, San Juan and Little Colorado.
In the southwest corner of the Plateau lies the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Most of the Colorado Plateau's landscape is related, in both appearance and geologic history, to the Grand Canyon. The nickname "Red Rock Country" suggests the brightly colored rock left bare to the view by dryness and erosion. Domes, hoodoos, fins, reefs, goblins, river narrows, natural bridges and slot canyons are only some of the additional features typical of the Plateau.
The Colorado Plateau has the greatest concentration of national parks in the United States. Among its parks are Grand Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Petrified Forest National Park. Among the national monuments are Dinosaur National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Colorado National Monument.
I cheated and copied some of the above from Wikipedia. We've hiked in all these parks and monuments and many places outside of them.

4 comments:

  1. These shots are so beautiful, Karin! That is a part of the country I always wanted to visit, but I never made it. My youngest has been all through that area, and I'm grateful for her many photos.

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  2. The colors in those photos are wonderful, especially the last one.

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  3. I would love to go hiking in that fantastic part of the world. Those reds are magnificent, what heights, what beauty. Thank you for talking about the Red Rock Country and making me dream of one day going there.

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  4. Spectacular - big skies, gorgeous striated colours in the rock. I'm never likely to be able to see it in person, so thanks for showing me something of the beauty of that area Karin.

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