Crossing the Great Divide

Left Vernal today and I think Dinosaur NM is worth a return visit.  I would like to see the Gates of Lodore on the northern end of the park.  Drove across Colorado to Rocky Mountain NP.

Note the lack of snow in the Never Summer Mountains.  The snowmelt from this range feeds the Colorado River. Conditions are the same throughout the Rockies.  I realize it is August, but it's been this way for months and this does not bode well for the water supply for cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix or Los Angeles, or for irrigation agriculture.

Never Summer Mountains from Kawunechee Valley

Never Summer Mountains from Fairview Curve

Below is the Mummy Range looking eastward.  This valley is part of the Missouri-Mississippi drainage basin.

Mummy Range

Longs Peak, 14259 ft.

Alas, I say goodbye to the Rockies.  Tomorrow I head east from Cheyenne, so this will probably be my last post for a while.

Dinosaurs

Interesting drive from Moab to Vernal.  Driving through rural areas there are all these signs that say "Open Range" but I never see Robert Duvall or Kevin Costner (that's a joke, see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316356/).  But as I was driving up Rt 191 towards Duchesne, I did see two cowboys and a dog running a cow and calf across the the highway.  Unfortunately they were moving too fast to get a photo.

I made it to Vernal, and went to the quarry at Dinosaur NM.  Saw the bone bed in the Morrison.

Part of the bone bed

Apatosaurus femur

After leaving the quarry I drove to the other entrance to the park to see the canyon carved by the Yampa River on its way to the confluence with the Green River.

Yampa Canyon

Busy day around Moab

First stop today was the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail where fossil bones are well-exposed with information signs posted along the trail.

Sauropod Vertebrae

Next stop was Canyonlands-Island in the Sky NP.  The sky was clear and the sun was brutal.

Looking East from Grand View, Canyonlands NP.

Looking north from Grand View, Canyonlands NP

Shaefer Canyon, Canyonlands NP

Bucks Canyon, Canyonlands NP

Later went back to Arches and traveled up the dirt road going up the Salt Valley Wash before hiking up the trail through the Devil's Garden.  At the end of the day I went back to Delicate Arch but didn't have the strength to make the climb up to the arch.  I went to one of the viewpoints to get photos of Delicate Arch at sunset.

Balanced Rock, Arches NP

Delicate Arch at sunset, Arches NP

LaSal Mtns from Arches NP

Landscape Arch, Arches NP

Park Avenue, Arches NP

A Capitol Day! (Capitol Reef that is)

Drove to Capitol Reef NP today.  The rocks are primarily Triassic and Jurassic that were bent into a monocline called the Waterpocket Fold.  Formations exposed in the park are, from oldest to youngest, Moenkopi Formation, Chinle Formation, Wingate Sandstone, Kayenta Formation, and Navajo Sandstone.  Cross-bedding is particularly prominent in the Wingate and Navajo.

Navajo Sandstone

Cross-bedding in the Navajo

Formations exposed from oldest (bottom) to youngest (top): Moenkopi, Chinle, Wingate.  The pyramid peak in the background is  Navajo.

Cross-bedding in the Wingate.

After leaving Capitol Reef, I went to Arches NP to try and get a sunset photo of Delicate Arch.  No luck as the clouds closed in about an hour before sunset.

Delicate Arch

Tomorrow I'm heading to Canyonlands and Arches again.

Plateau Country

Today I drove through Colorado National Monument.  The landforms there are formed primarily by differential weathering and stream erosion of the Triassic and Jurassic Chinle, Wingate, Kayenta, Entrada, Wanaakh, and Morrison formations.

"Coke Ovens"

Independence Monument

Monocline

Wildlife was strangely absent in many parts of the park.  At some stops, the silence was "deafening".  However, one skink was accommodating enough to pose for a photo.

Skink

After leaving Colorado NM, I headed towards Moab, where I got this shot of the collapsed core of the Salt Valley Anticline.

Salt Valley Anticline

Tomorrow I will hit some of the parks around Moab, probably Capitol Reef and try to get back to Arches for sunset.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate, there is a chance of rain :-(