Dinosaur Tracks at St. George

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On the way from “Zion National Park” to the west – after all, I have to move another 800 miles or so to get to the airport, on the highway to Las Vegas, I noticed a tourist sign, that advertised dinosaur tracks. After I have already spent quite some time enjoying fossilized dinosaur bones, that sounded like an interesting place. While preparing the land to build something on it, these dinosaur tracks where discovered. All in all, there are several layers of tracks from different Read More +

Bryce Canyon NP

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As the park ranger, who gave speech about the geology of the “Bryce Canyon National Park” correctly remembered, this place is not about a canyon. The its more like a ridge, which erodes – more in the east than in the west. The water sources here at around 9000 feet / 2700 meters, is mostly rainfall. What makes this place so special compared to the neighboring mountains, which partially are built from the same sediments, but don’t show the same type of erosion, is that Read More +

Moosy Cave

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Close to the “Bryce Canyon National Park”, and therefore build from similar stone and by similar processes, the “Moosy Cave” provides a great view for a short rest. I actually ended up there for lunchtime. The place, which gives this short hike its name, the “Moosy Cave”, really is just that a moosy cave. Ground water eroded that cave and at the same time provides the necessary environment for moose to grow in that desert like environment. The cave is so secluded, that ice might Read More +

Petrified Wood

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On the way from the “Capitol Reef National Park” to the “Bryce Canyon National Park”, a rough 110 mile drive, the state park at Escalante is a place to see some petrified wood. This once was real wood, which under special circumstances became petrified. Like in all petrification processes, the organic material is gradually replaced by minerals, before the organic material can be decomposed. Similar to exhibits of dinosaur bones in plain nature, also this petrified forest is presented under the open sky, the way Read More +

Mountains in Full Color

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I did not expect too much from the “Capitol Reef National Park”, while it was mentioned in the flyer, that the colors are beautiful, I kind of thought I have seen many nice places in the past days, this cannot top it. It kind of did. However my first encounter, when I was inside the national park, was with Dave and his wife. Two hikers where standing on the side of the street and hoped for a ride. As they looked quite normal and quite Read More +

Goblin Valley State Park

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What a strange place. When I was at Vernal UT, more precisely at the Tourist Information at Jenson UT, I got hold of a flyer, which advertised Goblin Valley State Park – in very small print actually. Luckily, that particular park was on my route today from Green River to Torrey. These very special geological formations, really look like from another world. As the state park seems to be relatively rarely visited – or the visitors behave – one can wander between the formations and Read More +

Playing with Ravens

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Time flies in this area. It was already around 4 pm, when I arrived at the trail head, which leads to the congruence of the colorado and green river. I planned to go there, to see how the green and reddish water mix or actually does not mix, but creates a two colored river. However, the path to that place is around 5 miles / 9 km. So I probably could have it made by daylight under the best circumstances, but the return trip would Read More +

Strange Stones

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A bit outside of Moab, one can find a short “Dino Track”. Directions to which are available a the local land management agency and basically involve driving into no mans land 15 miles north of Moab on a dirt road. Once there, there should be a short track, where dinosauric bones and petrified wood can be observed. However, the track is hardly visible and I just went past it on something like the “long loop” around two of those fancy mountains. That track, which took Read More +

Three Levels of Life

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In “Canyonlands National Park” the main attraction are of the canyons. But the main actor in that arid desert actually was and still is water, which has been building all those structures. The entire landscape is more or less divided into three layers as erosion cut away meterial, but was stopped by some intermediate harder layer build from wind blown sand (in desert like environments). If the ranger, who gave a presentation about the geology remembers his lectures correctly rivers, such as the colorado or Read More +

Wormholes in Canyonland

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No, this is not about science fiction or physics. The wormholes I observed are for real and they are preserved in stone. That particular stone actually once was mud at the beach of an ocean or inland lake, where worms left their traces. As the mud got harder, mud cracks developed. All of which was then covered by the next layer preserving those structures for some time (actually quite a bit of time).