May 4 Dead Horse Point State Park, along the Columbia River, Castle Valley, Corona Arch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Next morning was foggy and cold as well. Eric had slept poorly, and was grumpy. But the views were amazing. |   Glad we brought binoculars. | The original plan was to go backpacking in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, but since Eric had slept poorly and the weather wasn't supposed to be great, we spent the night in Moab instead. These are rock formations around the Moab area. The black streaks are called desert varnish. |   Driving east along the Columbia River |   We took a detour in the small town of Castleton. Interesting houses there. |   If my brother Tom lived in Castleton, his place might look like this. | Driving on semi-deserted roads is one of my favorite parts of travel in the Southwest. |   We drove around the Manti-La Sal National Forest, with some great views of Castle Valley. | It was snowing in the mountains. |   Another view of Castle Valley. | Along the Columbia River west of 191 again, the late afternoon light was great on the rocks. |   We stopped and looked at some more pictographs. |   In the evening, we took a quick hike to Corona Arch, off highway 279. This little cave looks like it could be a hundred feet high, but it was actually about 8 feet high. |   The view from the arch. |   The base of the arch looks like a prehistoric dinosoar leg. |   Corona arch itself. | Two eye sockets made of caves in the rock make this section look very much like a face. |   A narrowleaf yucca plant, flowering. | On the way back to the car. |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||