Leaving Utah Behind…

Posted byWhere's Wendy? Livin' in the Edge!Posted inUncategorized
Arches National Park in my rear view

After some serious consideration, I made the decision to leave Utah’s incredible beauty behind & move on to Arizona. As much as I really really wanted to visit the Zion, Bryce & Capitol Reef national parks, my fear of heights was definitely outweighing my joy of the experience. 🥺 I’m ecstatic that we made it to Utah & camped overnight in Arches & Canyonlands National Parks, but my overwhelming fear of driving off the cliffs became too much to handle. 🤷‍♀️ With our earlier, “little” misadventure in the desert, we spent 20 days in Utah, which was much more than I’d originally anticipated! I’m 10% sad that I skipped out on visiting these wonderful national treasures & 90% forever thrilled that we made it to Utah & survived!!! I paid $15 for a DVD of the Utah National Parks, so now I’ll be able to view them & enjoy them at my leisure, from the comfort of level ground! 🤓

The colors of Utah are extremely rich & vivid. The following photos of Arches National Park are all edited to soften them, but they’re still extraordinarily bright! I believe I’ve identified a few photos correctly, but I’m not positive. If I don’t know what it’s named, I’m leaving it blank. Not everything is named in the park because of the vast number of them.

You might notice that I don’t have any photos of the famous arches. 🤔 Almost all of them require a hike to be viewed. Between my fear of heights & dogs being prohibited from walking the trails, I’ll be glad to see them on my new DVD! 😉

This is a stock photo of Broken Arch. It was very close to our campsite in Canyonlands & I considered walking out to see it…until I saw the warning about the mountain lion! 🥺

According to UtahGeology.com, “Colorado Plateau is home to the densest concentrations of natural arches found anywhere in the world. Arches National Park alone claims to be home to over 2,000 documented natural sandstone arches with diameters of at least 3 feet. At least 800 significant arches have been photographed and identified elsewhere in the state and thousands of others are estimated to exist. Six of the world’s fifteen largest known natural arches are found in Utah.”

https://utahgeology.com/why-are-there-so-many-arches-in-utah

Bighorn Ewe & Lamb

Info re: these life-size & lifelike statues at the Visitor Center. https://www.nps.gov/articles/arches-sculptures.htm
Bighorn Ram, Collared Lizard & Ravens
The black arrow is one of the lower 😳 roads I drove on to start my ascent skyward. I bought a $10 CD for the self-guided tour. It contains incredibly interesting information & both the male & female narrators soothing voices helped calm me during the drive! 😍 It was nice to have them along for the ride!
The Three Penguins
Park Avenue
Balancing Rock is balancing naturally. It is not fastened in place.
“The Three Gossips is a statuesque formation named for its striking resemblance of three people chatting (er, gossiping.) This mid-size formation that stands at 350 feet is located near the Courthouse Towers in the Windows section of the park.”

This isn’t a great photo, but as someone from Massachusetts, this appears to me to be 3 revolutionary war soldiers in colonial Tricorn hats!
Ancient Sand Dunes
Although I definitely haven’t conquered my fear of heights, I’m proud of myself for battling through it to visit Arches & Canyonlands National Parks. I’d have regretted missing out, so I’m thankful that I didn’t give up! 💕
Arches & Canyonlands National Parks provided me with 2 days of exquisite moments❣

Published by Where's Wendy? Livin' in the Edge!

On May 2, 2021, I departed from Massachusetts in my 2017 Ford Edge (Breezy Blue) with my 13.5 year young pup, Maddie, to fulfill a lifelong dream of a road trip across America. Our departure was delayed by a month, but we're making up for lost time now! My goal is to be out and about for a year.

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