canyonlands/arches

dear diary,

the last stop of our cross-country trip was canyonlands/arches national parks. due to the shortage of time, we had to visit both on one day. which we accomplished fairly successfully.

canyonlands, millions of years ago, was covered by an inland ocean. as the waters receded, all kinds of futuristic formation and, yes, more canyons were revealed. the spot it carved out in a Y-shape by the colorado and the green rivers, which cut amazing valleys into the former ocean-floor. each third of the national park’s Y-shape is sealed off, there’s no access from one to the other because of the rivers that merge downstream. we went to the top third of the park called island in the sky, which has the tallest plateau from the three.





a few mid-range hikes took us to the edges of very high cliffs were i was experiencing not very brave moments again, fighting my fear of heights.





























for the afternoon hours we had arches national park on the menu. when we got to the park, we spotted pretty serious looking clouds approaching. i asked the ranger if he knew what the weather forecast was, but he told me not the worry. apparently, the desert air is so dry that even if the rain stars coming down from the clouds, it usually doesn’t reach the ground and evaporates. and he was right, the brutal grey-black clouds unloaded only a few drops of rain (at least only a few reached us).




the most promising hike lead us through a part of the park called the devil’s garden. and it delivered.








we passed by 8 completely different arches that are the remaining parts of narrow slices of orange sandstone rocks that break down from larger masses. incredible formations in the middle of the utah desert. one range of rocks looked like an ancient city’s remains. others like ufos that have landed and turned to stone. apt name: the devil’s garden.

















moab, utah has nice local beer breweries making their own beer. they tasted really nice… my only concern (again) was the 3.2% alcohol law in place significantly changing the beverage’s effect. but it was all good; after all, we had to hit the road the next day.

later we retreated to our hostel room filled with hippies, crazy french mountain bikers and other cool creatures. the lazy lizard hostel was the coolest accommodation we had on the entire trip.