Friday, June 03, 2011

"Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill." - Robert Louis Stevenson

Well, actually I wasn't sailing or hunting, but I did get home.

We came home Monday afternoon, but I've been so busy catching up on stuff around the yard I haven't had much of a chance to post until now. It was cool and raining here in Salt Lake, so the grass and weeds grew into a jungle. I've also been tilling and planting a vegetable garden, so I've been fairly busy.

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We took our time going to Moab; it is only about a four hour drive, so we did some stops on the way.
One of stops we made was the Natural History Museum in Price, Utah.

As usual, click on the pictures if you want to see the full-size version.  These are only a small portion of the pictures, I may post some more later.

Not far from the town they have been pulling out some mammoth skeletons, such as this guy.














They also had a few dinosaur skeletons, allosaurus, stegasaurus, triceratops, and a few others.








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Coming into Moab, it is necessary to cross the Colorado River.

The first picture shows the highway crossing the river.
The second picture is taken from the bridge for foot and bicycle traffic.





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We spent quite a bit of time south of Moab; our first stop was a small museum in Blanding that was built next to a small Anasazi village. The Anasazi were the ancestors of the modern Pueblo people; their culture collapsed during the time of the 13th and 14th centuries BC. The name Anasazi means "the ancient enemy" in the Navajo language. The ancestors of the Navajo and Apache peoples raided the Anasazi, hence the name.

Some ruins.














Some of the pottery recovered from the ruins.














We next went on to Hovenweep, another Anasazi settlement.

Hovenweep is in a small valley, and has towers along the edge.  I took pictures of some of the towers.









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Some time was spent around the Canyonlands area. There was some wind that day, so the air was a little hazy in some areas due to dust.
The first two are from Sixshooter Viewpoint.
The other two are from on top of Island in the Sky area.






























We also saw various wildlife, such as raptors, elk, and pronghorns.














I couldn't pass up some of the flowers blooming at this time.
The first two are cactus.
The third is wild hollyhocks, a type of mallow.
Wild irises.

















 












When coming home on Monday, it was fair weather until we reached Soldier Summit.
My wife was driving at the time, and I took this picture(through the windshield while we were moving) of a blizzard we had to pass through. It was actually worse than it looks.














We also stopped by the Sundance Institute to check out the mountain roads in the Wasatch area. The road going over to American Fork was still closed, and snow was still present at Sundance in many of the shaded areas. I got a picture of the sculpture there when the sun was out.















All in all, we had a good time.

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A lot of oldies in this bunch.

"It's My Life" by Bon Jovi
"Lightnin' Strikes" by Lou Christie
"Season of the Witch" by Donovan
"Shape of Things to Come" by Max Frost and the Troopers
"American Pie" by Don McLean
"She's My Girl" by The Turtles
"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones
"Burnin' For You" by Blue Öyster Cult
"Rock Me" by Steppenwolf
"I Drink Alone" by George Thorogood







8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You saw raptors? I hope you were able to outrun them! ;-)

"I drink alone, yeaaaahhh, with nobody else..." FAVORITE Thorogood tune! Always loved the Stones' "Brown Sugar," too...

meleah rebeccah said...

Oh wow, Bob! These photos are flippen amazing. I clicked on all of them. LOVED!

My favorite song on the list has to be: "American Pie" by Don McLean

Irish said...

Looks like a great trip :) My Bucket List has a line item that includes renting a nice RV and taking off for 2-3 months and just driving around the country and seeing all the sights in person.. (I hope to make it before we have to carry papers and stop at checkpoints.)

BobG said...

Pistolero: it's hard to beat the classics, isn't it?

Meleah: glad you liked the photos.

Pissed: I'm afraid 2 or 3 months wouldn't let you see as much as most people think. I could spend a week or two in each state and still miss some stuff.
It would be fun to try though ;)

James Higham said...

Mighty big trek that, Bob, through pretty forbidding territory at times.

Chris said...

Planting in mid June... wow. Around here everyone is giving up after their enthusiastic March start. Now that I pay attention to such things, I notice the planting zones on the back of the seed packets take a big dip south over Utah.

BobG said...

James: the scary places aren't even evident in the pictures; there are some roads there that I won't drive on with any vehicle.

Chris: what many people forget is that we are at a higher elevation than many other places. The average altitude here in the Salt Lake area is around 4300ft above sea level.

terri said...

Great pictures. Looks like you saw some great sites!