Colorado National Monument, CO

Welcome to Colorado National Monument in

Grand Junction, CO!

Here in one of the tunnels we went through

while in the Monument.

Balanced Rock: a 600 ton boulder perched

atop a pedestal.

Another interesting geological feature.

I call this the Swiss Cheese effect.  Erosion

has created these holes in the rock.

You know I am happy when I am on the road!

Coke Ovens: a series of colorful rock domes

created by the natural sculpting forces of

wind, water and ice.  You can see it is cloudy.

In the sun these would be brilliant.

One of the many amphitheaters found in the Monument.

We are told that they are hoping the National Park

Service will soon make this a National Park.

Ute Canyon.

Check out the long drop off the edge!

My artsy photo for the day.

This is called a canyon in a canyon.

Pinion pines along the rim of the canyon.

A parting shot of Colorado National Monument.

Finally got some blue sky!

Dinosaur National Monument, UT

The Dinosaur Monument is in Utah and Colorado.

Bill is standing beside a femur of a large dinosaur.

These dinosaur bones were deposited in river

sand covered for 146 million years.  About a

hundred years ago, archeologists began finding

a few bones.

Most of the bones dug from this quarry went

to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

A full size dinosaur constructed from the bones

in this quarry.

Don't know if this is a weed or flower, but

I thought it was pretty.

Dinosaurs and Flaming Gorge, UT

Vernal is the home of the Utah Museum of

Natural History.  Here is a full size rendering

of a wooly mammoth.

This pterodactyl is for my daughter, Donna!

 

A ferocious T-Rex.

 

After the heavy rains last night and this morning,

the afternoon brought sunshine so we headed

north to Flaming Gorge Dam.  Here you see

one of the many geological features along Rt. 191.

 

 A monolith along the way.

Looking back down into the valley as we climbed

the mountains.

You know I could not resist another 

shot of the changing aspen.

Our first glimpse of Flaming Gorge.

Our tour guide took this picture of us

on the top of the dam.  We had to go 

through a security check before we 

were allowed to go with our guide.

You can see from all the red rock

why this is called Flaming Gorge.

Inside of the dam.

It is ten feet from being completely filled.

From all the heavy rains we had, this is

what the Ashley Creek looked like

this afternoon.

Taking a look at the other side of the bridge,

this is what the Ashley Creek looked like.

Vernal, UT

I have a smile on my face, but I was absolutely

terrified for 20 minutes before hand.  A fierce

thunderstorm rolled through Vernal as 

predicted along with a flash flood warning.

With the horizon being so open, the winds, rain

and lightning were incredible.  We were on our way

to dinner when the lights went out.  Made it

back to the hotel that had electric and watched 

the rain turn to hail and scrapple.  Once it stopped,

I had to get the snow like material and make the

snowball you see above.

We did go back down to where there was electric

and got this photo of the rain running down the

side of the street.

Another shot of the water raging down the

side of the road.  Apparently these people are used

to storms like these since we saw businesses wit

sand bags at their front doors.

A close up of the water going over a bump

 in the road.  I thought it was a rather interesting

click of the camera.

Sandy, UT

We drove through the Great Salt Lake Dessert

this morning.  I caught this interesting formation

along the way.  After about 30 miles of this, we

both got so sleepy!

Snakes and scorpions and Bill.

Oh my!!!

This part of Utah had a lot of rain last week,

thus we saw places that had water covering 

the salt beds.

First time I ever saw this speed limit.

No, we did not go that fast.

High winds make that difficult.

We took a ride late afternoon to find Big

Cottonwood Canyon.  We started out in the

shadows, but got this picture of the aspens

changing color at about 8,000 feet.

The sun came out and the aspen colors blossomed!

Yes, there are many homes and huge resorts all over 

towards the top.

Autumn comes to the high peaks of the

Wasatch Mountains.

Made it to the Guardsmen's Pass.

It felt like we were on the top of the

world at 9700 feet.

This is definitely God's country.

Amen!

Wendover, UT

Last night we stayed here at Cactus Pete's, this

huge casino and hotel that appeared out of nowhere

once we crossed into Nevada.

Beautiful landscapes on the way to Utah.

Saw this sign and thought of my sister, Donna.

To keep wildlife safe, Nevada built bridges over

the highway to allow safe passage.

We finally arrived at the Salt Flats!

From a high hill we could see the Salt Flats

and I-80 traffic in the distance.

Standing on the Salt Flats, I could see

many beautiful mountains.

We took a ride on the Salt Flats.

Evening approaches on the Salt Flats.