Utah Wildlife

Nearly all of these creatures were viewed in the immediate Moab area. One just left a trace around Moab.

Oregonians have to go to Utah and take a boat ride on the Colorado River to see a beaver, their state animal.

Whip tail lizard.  Seemed to be the dominate desert life form.

Tourist girl and a whip tail.

Mystery snake species

Allosaurus track on the ridge above Moab

Perhaps a distant relative of the whip tail lizard.

The Other "Rock"

While up there on Misery Ridge, Tyler pops The Question.

Back at our campsite, Kirsten appears to have said Yes.

It's VERY sparkly!

It's usually baseball diamonds for Tyler, but he's making an exception for Kirsten.

Smith Rock State Park

What a ruggedly beautiful place for hikers and climbers!

We are still finding cool places to visit in Oregon.

  The spire on the right is Smith Rock its very self.  There is a tiny balancing rock off on the left of the horizon.

Park volunteer holding a gopher snake.  None of the resident rattlers were sighted by the members of our party.

Tyler and Kirsten tackle the infamous Misery Ridge Trail.  It was too hot that day for the most senior member of our party to tackle it on this trip.  We will be back.

Two travelers looking very outdoorsy.

The balancing rock and haze from forest fires are both visible.

Delicate Arch

This arch is the one featured on the Utah license plate.

Judy is garbed in her desert hiking wear.  

You can barely see tiny people hiking to Delicate on the ridge line.

We did not make the hike because it was late in a hot day and everyone was getting tired.  We will definitely do so on the next visit.

 

Some folks think that this arch looks like the bottom half of a cowboy wearing chaps.

 

 The older tourist in this photo is thinking of a cold malted beverage.

Double Arches Area

We were told that double arches were fairly rare.

The small red dot below the green bush is our travel niece, Charlotte.

The big red dot, oh you know!  Her nickname was Goatina.  The stone outcroppings trail off into the mist

 Again, the tiny red dot.

Charlotte @ Arches

This post features our grand niece, who has a great smile and is the very best traveling companion.

We are hiking the same canyon featured in the next post. The smile is hard to see here.

Charlotte on the rocks.

Arches Nat'l Park Hike

Every stop was a picture postcard view at this National Park.  We hiked down this canyon on a cloudy, sometimes rainy day.

Reminds me of scenery from a western movie.

 

The balancing rock reminds me of an Egyptian profile.
Nefertiti?

View from about halfway down the trail.

Crater Lake

 Wizard Island, named long before there was a Harry Potter.

The very happy campers

A Clark's Nutcracker, I think.  Very blue water with a wake from an excursion boat in the distance.  The water is about 1,000 feet below the crater's rim.

Diamond Lake

Mt. Thielsen from the bike path on the north edge of the lake.

When I was a kid I would ride to Diamond Lake in the back seat of a Studebaker.  I remember then as now, marveling at how clear it was.