We
spent the night at "Airport" camp, site D. The site was
flat, but barren and unshielded from either wind or sun. We
had a great dinner and slept soundly. But, for some reason I
awoke before dawn so I used that as an opportunity to get a photo
of the sunrise.
The photos below are what we saw.
Sunrise
over the far buttes was inspirational.
As
stated before, our campsite was barren and unprotected. But
the morning light brought a great view of the butte that was
towering over us.
The
calm morning allowed us to launch the quadcopter to get some
aerial photos of our camp.
Our path to the west is clearly visible, but the surrounding terrain is very barren.
Thor
looks small and insignificant compared to the massive sandstone
cliffs and broad valley floor.
There
were thin layers of harder caprock that produced interesting
shelves and overhangs on the surrounding formations.
We
broke camp and headed west on the White Rim Trail. Our path
brought us below huge towers of sandstone that were imposing
shapes on the skyline.
The
road was easy in a 4x4 technical sense, but rough and slow-going,
perhaps 5 mph. We followed the bench and learned that each
side canyon resulted in a detour.
This
side canyon was a bit more challenging than most.
The
upper formations of sandstone eroded to produce nice hoodoos,
towers and cathedrals.
Nearly
every side canyon on the bench resulted in a huge headwall.
Above, we stopped and got a photo to demonstrate the height of the
headwall. My 24mm lens was not wide enough to show the
bottom of the side canyon.
A
shot looking from the headwall down the side canyon.
Normally
the trail followed the flat bench and traveled over a combination
of slickrock and sand. Above, the rim of Canyonlands can be
seen on the horizon.
Spring
is typically the time when flowers are blooming. In this
arid region, the scope of species is quite narrow but the prickly
pears were in bloom. We saw two basic colors of blooms:
yellow and purple. I do not know if these are different
species or variants of the same species.
The
purple blooms were nice and well structured, but I prefer the
yellow due to the intense color.
The
overlaying of hard stone over softer formations produced plenty of
balanced rocks.
This
side canyon had a whole array of hoodoos resulting from
hard-over-soft layering.
This
section had eroded to produce an arch. Note the sunlight
under the caprock.
We
did a trail-side lunch stop under the large cliffs.
As
we continued to skirt the side canyon we got better views of the
hoodoos. Faster erosion of the softer rock underneath also
resulted in many arches or bridges being formed.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2014, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.