Plenty of Arches

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Today was fully dedicated to the arches and other formations as the “Arches National Park”. While there are explanations about layers of mud, dunes and salt seas being deposited at various intervals and then eroded again over a period of millions of years – we are talking about around 100 million years even, it is still hard to imagine that this all could result in such a spectacular landscape. But questions remain. For example at the arches or other locations where material obviously broke, where Read More +

Delicate Arch at Sunset

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After a long drive to Moab and finding a hotel, I finally managed to get into the Arches National Park. It was already quite late and sunset was immanent. So I decided to only briefly enjoy the extreme bizarre, but very beautiful landscape and mountains and head more or less directly to the “Delicate Arch”, probably the most famous arch in that park as its also imprinted on the number plate for cars registered in Utah. Looking at the description of the hiking path, I Read More +

Hands on Dinosaur

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Hard to be believe, but you can actually touch a real dinosaur – or at least what has been left of it after 150 million years. The territory around Jensen is so rich of dinosaur bones, that on the small guided tour at the “Dinosaur Quarry”, visitors are actually encouraged to touch the stones and bones. Scientists have recovered enough material, and there is still plenty, that the potential damage tourists create is not worse than the natural erosion to which these pieces are also Read More +

Nice Company

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That little critter seems to be used to be observed. After some initial “runawy” action, it started to igonre me and did feed on seamen.

Interesting Weather

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With the relative flat land in Wyoming or Utah, the horizon is far away. One side-effect of this is, that the sun goes down really low on the horizon – in contrast to the normally “high” sunset at home. Also, due to the far visibility, the cloud pattern can be observed over a long distances. And one can easily be in full sunlight but observe a thunderstorm some 20 or 30 miles further down the road. This often results in very nice sceneries. Being able Read More +

Wild Landscapes

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On my way further down south, I came through some very remote and wild landscapes. Along the longer part of the way only grassland or bushes lined up with the street. It must be a very difficult trip for the first settlers to travel through these terrain’s – without modern navigation systems or freeways, that make traveling comfortable these days. Those travelers only had – I guess – rather rough descriptions of landmarks, such as the “Pilot Butte” a characteristic table mountain on top of Read More +

Arrived in the Wild West

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Quite obviously, today I arrived in the Wild West. While there was a touch of it at West Yellowstone too, at Jackson you definifely know where you have landed walding or driving through the streets. Of course there is a purpose for creating this abidance. Given that many of these Wild West style buildings house a gift shop, art gallery, restaurant or are otherwise linked to tourism, this village seems to be living from its visitors. At the city border, a group of ski lift Read More +

A Very Close Encounter

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Normally one would not really like to be that close to a bison. Even though they look harmless, the can be quite dangerous. After all, they are still wild animals. However sometimes they seem to seek the neighborhood of people. At least it looks like that, when they travel the streets or make a break at a picnic area. From within the safety of the car – I guess also the bison fill a bit safer if people stay in the cars – one may Read More +

At the Madison River

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A bit off the main road through the park, on a secluded drive, one can catch the calm atmosphere at the Madison River.

At the Right Time

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Today, the big animals were quite generous in posing for the camera. But I guess, it is all a question of being at the right time at the right place. Being “held” up by a herd of bison quite a bit, the delay was just right to meet a beautiful mule deer fifteen minutes later. Those bison herds, where quite impressive. Bison are approximately about the same size as a regular cow and probably also behaves quite similarly. So from that point of view seeing Read More +