Utah

Bonneville Race Track (Note)	Miles & Miles of flat salt.	Motorcycle Racer
Mormon Temple	Mormon Temple	Mormon Temple
Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Note)	Eagle Street Decoration	Scrabble Gull(Note)
	"This is the Place" Heritage Park(Note)
Great Salt Lake(Note)	Special flag for pedestrians	Wolf Canyon
San Rafael Reef (Note)	San Rafael Reef
Drill marks for blasting	Drill marks for blasting
Arches NP	Moab Fault (Note)
Fractures in the top of an arch, waiting to fall	Erosion that might start a new arch	New York Skyline
Twin balanced rocks	Pine Tree Arch	Pine Tree Arch
Cryptobiotic Crust	Cryptobiotic Crust (Note)	Landscape Arch (Note)
Erosion continues	Erosion continues	Lizard
Fins	Fins (Note)	Old weathered Tree
(Note)	Balanced Rock	Smooth Erosion Waterpath
Single tower	Single tower, closer
	Skyline Arch (Note)	Before & After Picture
Morning view from RV Park		Bryce Canyon NP (Note)
		Sevier River Valley
		Hoodoos (Note)
	Natural Bridge	Lone Pine trying to survive
Hard rock capping the tops of the hoodoos	Cliffs on the east side of the valley, 35 miles away
		The Grotto
Deer	Raven waiting for lunch	Bridge or tunnel on road
(Note)	1.1 mile tunnel (Note)	Beginning of an arch or alcove
Plants growing out of moist cracks in rocks	Plants growing out of moist cracks in rocks	"Checkerboard Mesa"
The "Giant Organ"		The "Grand Throne"
The "Narrows"	Hardened sand dunes (Note)	Hardened sand dunes
Squirrel getting into a backpack	Chipmunk looking for food	Scouringrush (Note)
"Desert Varnish" (Note)	Towering cliffs	Sandstone cliffs (Note)
Sandstone cliffs	Temples of the Gods	"Angels Landing"
Rock split by tree root	Lush river valley (Note)	"Virgin River" (Note)
Waterfall	Water flowing out of rocks	Waterfall (Note)
The "Patriarchs" Abraham, Isaac & Jacob	White Cliffs

Our first special site in Utah is the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track. This huge area of dry lake bed is the site of all the world land records. The racetrack is a ten mile length of dry salt, with a black stripe down the middle. The 10 miles gives the racers time to get up to speed for the run through the 1 mile timed section and then time to stop without burning up their brakes. To set a record, a racer has to make a run through the 1 mile timed section in one direction and then make a second run through the 1 mile section from the other direction within one hour of making the first run. The current record is 622 miles per hour set in 1970. As we were traveling east from the racetrack area we passed the red motorcycle racer shown in the picture. (Back to picture)

Salt Lake City
As we were coming into Salt Lake City, Lois noticed in the guide book that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had open rehearsals on Thursday evening and we were able to get there to hear part of the practice. They have a 20-piece string orchestra that accompanies them. To hear the choir and orchestra is simply awesome, the 200 voices filling the Tabernacle Hall. (Back to picture)

The "Scrabble Gull" is part of an ongoing art, fundraiser going on in Salt Lake City. We have seen other cities doing the same thing with other animals and objects. The gull pictured above is covered in "Scrabble Tiles". The gull has a special meaning to the Mormons because in their first full year of crops after establishing their camps in the Salt Lake City area, the locusts came and ate most of the crops. The next year when their crops were getting ready for harvest, the gulls came from the west and ate the locusts thereby saving their crops. (Back to picture)

"This is The Place" is a park where the Mormons came over the mountains and Brigham Young said to his people as they could see the valley, "This is The Place". They had traveled over 130 days from Nauvoo, Illinois trying to find a place to settle where they could practice their religion with persecution. The groups that traveled out to Utah carried all their belonging in small wagons that they pulled and pushed by hand. The Mormons established the city that would become Salt Lake City and started most of the major towns that are now part of Utah. The temple shown above was built over a 40-year time frame and is built from granite mined from the local mountains. When you visit Salt Lake City you will notice how wide all the main streets are around the temple. The streets were made wide to be able to have two teams of oxen going in each direction so that they could pull the granite up to the temple site. (Back to picture)

The Great Salt Lake is the left over part of a vast lake called the Bonneville Lake. It existed in this area about 130 million years ago. The ancient lake extended west as far as Nevada. Over the years the lake evaporated leaving the area known today as the Bonneville Salt Flats. (Back to picture)

On I70 traveling east you reach a long descending stretch. This last gap is named for the geological formation, the San Rafael Reef. It is a long section of very hard rock. Earlier, the train route had taken a more northerly track to miss the San Rafael Reef area because of the massive rock formation. In 1957, the government decided to extend the Interstate System, I70 needed to go west from Colorado and the decision was made to cut through the San Rafael Reef. When the survey crews got to the area, they could actually touch the sides of the canyon with their extended arms. After removing several tons of material, the road came on through with two lanes and later, even more was removed to make it a full four lane interstate highway. The first picture is from above the final pass and the second picture is the bottom of the pass. The final pictures show the drill marks where the rock was dynamited apart. (Back to picture)

Arches National Park
The area of Arches National Park lies atop an underground salt bed that was created 300 million years ago when the area was covered by a giant inland sea. In places the salt bed is thousands of feet deep. Over millions of years the salt that was left when the sea evaporated was covered by residue from floods and other ocean water that came and went. The salt is unstable and under the weight of all the rock that formed on top of it over the years, the salt began to shift, buckling and repositioning itself. In many places the salt thrust the rock above it upward creating faults and a very uneven surface. In the picture "Moab Fault", is a clear picture of the result of some of the shifting. The picture was taken from a spot that is 2,500 feet lower than the top of ridge across the road. (Back to picture)

All of the shifting created more cracks in the rocks and that allowed the erosion to begin. Over time the erosion has removed tons of softer rocks leaving tall thin structures they call "fins". It's the erosion of the fins that creates the "arches". As softer rock erodes, the middle of the fins wash away and leave the top, harder rock to form the arch. (Back to picture)

One of the ways Mother Nature tries to protect the soil in the area is the development of a hard crust on the surface of the dirt called "Cryptobiotic Crust". This 'crust' is composed of bacteria, lichen, algae and fungi and covers much of the 'untrampled desert'. This 'crust' absorbs moisture, slows erosion and provides nitrogen for the neighboring plants. It is a living organism and is damaged by walking off the trails, it can take hundreds of years to repair itself. (Back to picture)

One of the main attractions close to the highway is "Balanced Rock". It is about 100 feet off the ground and is surrounded by rocks that continue to fall off the column that holds the top rock up. These balanced rocks are formed when a hard rock is supported by softer rocks. The softer rocks gradually erode away and leave the hard rock balanced on top. In the picture to the left is what's left of a sister 'balanced rock' that finally fell in 1970. The park is continually changing. (Back to picture)

"Landscape Arch" is a unique arch in that is probably the thinnest arch that you can see in the park. This arch is over 300 feet in length. Prior to 1991 there was a trail that went under the arch. In 1991 there were hikers sitting under the arch when they heard a loud popping noise from above them. They ran quickly away and none were hurt when 180 tons of rock fell out of the right edge of the arch. There is a picture in the park taken by a visitor that shows the rock as it fell away. All of the arches have some cracks in the rock and they think that the ten days of rain that fell just before the arch broke attributed to the failure. The trail under the arch is now closed. Click here to see another arch with fractures.

"Skyline Arch" has also seen changes in recent years. In 1940 a section of this arch rock fell out and almost doubled the size of the arch. The picture on the side shows 'before and after shots'.

Bryce Canyon National Park
To start our tour of Bryce Canyon I have to admit a big lie that is continually told about this "canyon"; it is not a "canyon". A canyon is a geologic feature made by a river that has carved out the rocks, leaving the sides of the canyon. Bryce Canyon is like a 'one sided' canyon. It is actually a long wall of brightly colored rocks that show on the eastern side of the plateau. The walls of Bryce Canyon have been formed over millions of years as the wind, rain and snow have melted the rock away and washed it down into the valley and into the Sevier River and other smaller rivers. Almost all of the rivers only have water in them during the Spring snow melt. The plateau that forms Bryce Canyon is the highest portion of what is called the Colorado Plateau that was formed about 10 million years ago. The Colorado Plateau actually covers most of Utah, NE Arizona, NW New Mexico and western Colorado. As the Colorado Plateau was formed, the whole area was uplifted as much as 10,000 feet. The Grand Canyon is on the southern edge of this giant plateau and the erosion over the millions of years have formed what is called the 'Grand Staircase'. As you leave the Grand Canyon and move north there is a series of cliffs that have formed as the rock on their southern edges has eroded. A giant could take a series of big steps and go up the 'Grand Staircase' finally reaching the highest cliff formed which is what we now called "Bryce Canyon". Each of these steps in the staircase are a different color because of the type of rock that has been exposed during the erosion. As you go north from the Grand Canyon, you reach the Chocolate Cliffs, then Vermillion Cliffs, then White Cliffs, then Gray Cliffs and then finally you reach the Pink Cliffs that we call Bryce Canyon. The same erosion forces that created the 'fins' and 'arches' in Arches National Park have created the magnificent features of Bryce Canyon.

One of the main features of Bryce Canyon besides the multitude of colors is the formations called "hoodoos". They are the tall, slender structures seen in almost every picture. They are created when water starts to erode the sandstone in the lower sides of the canyon wall. The top layer of the structure is hard and protects it from erosion. (See example) The sides begin to erode away leaving this tall object. After many years the sides become so weak that the whole thing falls away. You see some 'hoodoo' type structures in Zion National Park also, but the formations of the Bryce area make them the prevalent feature. (Back to picture)

Zion Canyon National Park
Unlike the lie told at Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon is an actual canyon, carved out by the Virgin River during millions of years of floods. The park was established in 1929 and the average attendance back them was 11 people per day; today about 1.5 million people tour the park each year. Zion is like a 'baby Grand Canyon', not as deep and not as wide. The best thing about Zion is that you can easily drive right down into the bottom of the canyon floor and look straight up at several thousand feet of flat sandstone walls. (Back to picture)

In the early 1930's the government built a 1.1 mile tunnel right through the rock walls of the canyon to allow access from the east. The road that comes from the east travels through 12 miles of switch back curves gradually bringing you down to the canyon floor. (Back to picture)

Along side the road as you approach the canyon you can view amazing sandstone rock formations. These rocks look like that they have been swept back and forth with a huge broom to make the sweeping lines in the formation. These rocks were actually once giant sand dunes that gradually hardened in place. As the winds changed directions through the years, the sand was 'swept' one way and then the other; each layer showing the motion of the winds over time. (Back to picture)

The plant shown in this picture is "scouringrush", a long tubular plant. It has a very coarse, wiry texture that contains large amounts of silica and was used by the pioneers for scrubbing their pots and pans. There are areas in the canyon base that are so moist all year round that it looks like a swamp with many ferns and the scouringrush growing. Millions of years ago, the scouringrush was the predominant plant in the swampy areas and over the following millions of years, it turned into the coal that we mine today. (Back to picture)

As you drive through the canyon you see various stains along the walls. This picture shows the most rare of the stains that can be seen. This stain is not really a stain, but is actually a bacteria that grows on the moist surface of the rock. These bacteria consume windborn dust from which they extract manganese, iron and other clay minerals. The minerals are fixed to the surface and as they oxidize they make the dark surface Depending on the amount of minerals, some walls are brown and some are almost purple. Most of the other stains are from water that seeps through the porous sandstone. The top layer in the rock structures is limestone that is white, like the "Grand Throne". As water percolates down through the limestone layer, some is dissolved and carried on through the structure. When the water reaches a harder layer that stops the downward path of the water, it continues to try to go down hill and drains along the hard layer. If the hard structure is exposed to the canyon wall, the water drips out of the canyon wall. In some places the quantity of water is large enough to make a water fall; in other places it just washes down the wall and makes it damp. Some of the pictures above show plants growing out of crevices in the rock, getting their water source from water draining from above. (Back to picture)

Because these sandstone cliffs are harder than the ones seen in Bryce Canyon, most of the walls are very straight, not the soft sandstone that forms the hoodoos. Because the rock is harder, it tends to flake off in large, straighter pieces. In many places you can see the rectangular section missing in the canyon wall and then see the rectangle piece lying further down the canyon wall. (Back to picture)

As you follow the canyon you are amazed at the lush valley floor along the Virgin River. The river does get some rain fall and with all the water that seeps through the canyon walls, it stays moist in the bottom of the canyon all the time. The canyon is lined with 'cottonwood' trees. The Indians and pioneers learned that the cottonwood tree only survives where it can keep its root wet all the time. Even if there is not surface water apparent at the moment, they knew that they could dig around the cottonwood tree and find some water. (Back to picture)

As mentioned above, the Virgin River flows through the canyon and provides the water for all the plants and for the erosion that needs to happen to continually make the canyon wider and deeper. The Virgin River gets its water from seepage out of the canyon walls, but mostly from snows that melt and rains that come during the monsoon season in the late summer. The Virgin River gets water from thousands of acres north of the canyon; from as far north as 185 miles. The huge thunderstorms that form in the summer dump large amounts of water into the river system all at one time. The storms create flash floods in the canyon and can make big changes in the river bed quickly. In the northern part of the canyon, the canyon walls close in and the space for the river get squeezed into a narrow space of less than 100 feet. That section is called the "Narrows". (See the Narrows) The picture above is just the beginning of the "Narrows" because you have to wade the river to get to the most narrow section.(Back to river picture)

This picture is just one of the many waterfalls seen in the canyon. These are formed from water seeping through the canyon wall, like the two pictures to the left of this waterfall. When there are rain storms many more waterfalls form and for many, they disappear just as fast as they appear. Their life is created by the rain storms and as fast as that water runs off the canyon edge the waterfall dies. (Back to picture)