Newspaper Rock

The petroglyphs here are thought to cover a 2,000 year span. The combination of the deep, dark layer of deposits over the lighter sandstone beneath makes this a particularly good place for carving.

Newspaper Rock2

There are some fascinating carvings here. You can pick out all of the common large animals in the west, including bison and elk, and some unusual smaller ones, like flying squirrels.

Newspaper Rock 3

You can also pick out figures riding horses, proving that many of the carvings are no older than 1500. The graffiti in English is an especially unwelcome addition.

Sandstone Lizard

This is the first picture from Canyonlands National Park (which most people have never heard of). Note the lizard on the edge, which demonstrates the small size of this thing.

Anasazi Granary

The area was full of ancestral puebloans. This structure was used for storing food, and is pretty well hidden under a stone overhang.

Weird Sand Sculpture

I shot this on a hike out to a place called the Potholes. Everywhere you look in the park, you see something strange.

Full Pothole

These holes are basically large basins in a huge, solid sheet of rock. When it rains, they fill up with water, and host an incredible variety of life.

Shrimp and Snails

We observed at least three different kinds of shrimp, some snails, insects, and plants, all in one pothole. The two oval objects in the upper left are different kinds of shrimp. You can also see two snails.

Big Shrimp

This monster was over an inch and a half long (the ones in the previous shot were maybe 1/4"). I think it was dead.

Dry Pothole

As the pools dry up in just a few days, some creatures go dormant, and others die, leaving only eggs for the next generation. Pretty tough way of life.

Beaded Lizard?

This was about 6" long. Not sure of the species, but the Stegosaurus at Dinosaur Monument was painted similarly. We saw a lot of lizards there, and each one seemed to have a color pattern that matched the rock it was on. We don't know if they could change colors.

Flowers

Even this late in the summer, there were still flowers blooming in the tiny pools. These are very small, but quite colorful. I have no idea what kind they are.

San Juan Bend

These strange formations were high above a canyon cut by the San Juan river. You can't get a sense of the scale here, but you are looking at a span of miles.

Scary Rocks

You get a sense that this is the kind of place the animators of the Roadrunner had in mind for their backgrounds. You can just imagine these things falling on the Coyote.

More Scary Rocks

A lot of famous outlaws hid out in these canyons, and you can see why. There are just an enormous number of cracks, caves, canyons, you name it.

Juniper Berries

Many animals eat these berries. They seem to fall off and pile up in any low place. There aren't that many trees other than junipers that can survive in theses conditions.

Carol in Rock

I half expected the Coyote to come barreling around this rock on a skateboard with a rocket tied on his back, and then fall deep into the chasm behind me.

Church Rock

This monstrous rock sits in a field off the side of a major highway. That little door-shaped hole on the bottom is easily big enough for a person to walk in. If this was in Asia, it would have been carved into a great Budha head.

Dead Horse Point

Dead Horse is a Utah state park. We got there after the sun had already begun to set. The mountains in the back are the ones behind Arches, so you get the idea that the expanses here are truly vast.

Colorado Bend

That's the Colorado down there. Carol and I both thought this was actually more impressive than the Grand Canyon. I'm sure it's not as deep, but the distances you can see here are extraordinarily long.

Post Sunset

We're coming back to this one someday for sure. I just can't get over how spectacular it is. I guess it's relatively unknown because nobody wants to go to a place called "dead horse."

Juniper Sunset

I didn't do any complex manipulation of this image. That's just the way things look at sunset there. Impressive.