A trip to Moab, Utah

Kathleen and I took a three day to Moab, Utah in mid-May.  The purpose of our trip was to visit and photograph at Arches National Park and Fisher's Towers state park.  On our return trip we planned a stop at Rifle Falls, near Rifle, Colorado. 

Fisher's Towers

 

The first stop on our trip was at Fishers Towers.  We turned off I70 at Cisco and drove along Highway 128 toward Moab.  The road runs along the Colorado river and gives several nice longs views of the towers from a few miles away, with the river in the foreground and the La Sal mountains in the background.

The road continues to an entrance to the park, a dirt road that continues up a parking area at the base of the towers.  Beautiful views in every direction for the parking area.

The view from the base of the main tower, called the Titan tower, is very impressive.  The tower is over 900 feet tall and is a popular climbing site, although it looks a little spooky to me.

The view to the south from Fishers tower shows some nice red rock country and butts.

Arches National Park

 

Kathleen and I spent 1 late Friday afternoon and the following Saturday morning in Arches National park.  We had nice weather with sunny skies both days and a few clouds on Friday.  While at the Park Avenue Viewpoint on Saturday a couple asked us to take their photograph, which we did.  The wife then asked if we wanted a photo also and I said yes.  I then had to explain that my camera did not have live view and she would have to look through the view-finder -- LOL.  She did and made this shot of Kathleen and me smiling.  I guess the younger crowd does not know about cameras with view-finders.  I guess I am dating myself ;O)>.

After entering the park our first stop was at the Park Avenue Viewpoint.  A short walk leads to a trail head with large stone structures on both side of the trail and hence the name park avenue.

Here is a shot from the Park Avenue viewpoint 

Here is another shot from the Park Avenue viewpoint

The next stop was at the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint.

Looking west from the viewpoint we see the rock formation called the Three Gossips.

Here is a second view of the Three gossips.

This is a shot of the structure called the Organ which is on the west side of the road.

North of the Organ is a structure called the Tower of Babel.

From there we continue north on the road to Balanced Rock.  The balanced rock is a unique structure that appears to be ready to fall at any minute.  In the second shot you can see a glimpse of the La Sal mountains in the background.

We continued on the road east of the Balanced Rock to the windows section where we saw the North Windows arch and the Turret arch.
This is a view of the North Window Arch from the west side.

 

This is a view of Turret Arch from the front of the North Window Arch.

 An interesting formation in the area of Arches NP called the Garden of Eden.

Rifle Falls State Park

 

We left Grand Junction, Colorado on Sunday morning and drove over to Meeker, CO to visit one of our son and his family.  Just outside of Rifle, Colorado is a road leading the Rifle Falls State Park.  This is a beautiful location the has 3 water falls cascading of rocks  This is a camp ground on the site and picnic table along the river.  This is a great place with lots of trees, the sounds of rushing and crashing water.  A wonderful place to photograph or just sit and enjoy the sights and sounds over a leisure lunch.

 This image shows the center fall as it crashes down on the moss covered rocks.

 

This image shows the detail at the base of the center falls

  Here is Kathleen posing in front the river flowing out of the falls.

The following images are a few of Kathleen's taken at the falls and showing her artistic approach to seeing the falls and their surroundings.  I rather like her approach!