The Yellowstone Tour

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Day 14 - Saturday 01 October

We left "lovely" Rangley pretty early to get to Arches and saw some deer on the way

although there were still some long stretches of nothing...

Elaine drove, and it took us about two and a half hours to get our first view of the Arches red sandstone landscape.

Our first stop didn;t have any arches but was pretty impressive none the less, it was called "Park Avenue"

We took a trek down into the canyon

Driving on there were lots of sandstone columns and balancing stones, some needed a little help....

Our first actual arch.

It was a lot bigger than you might think.

Goggles!

This one's called the "delicate" arch.

Although this one looks more delicate.

As well as over 2000 arches there are also things called "hoodoos" ?

and some great views

Early evening we left Arches and drove to Canyonland National Park for quick visit. Very Grand Canyon looking.

Then off to Dead Horse State Park for the sunset

Along with a few other people.

Then it was off to Moab and the hotel for the night. Tomorrow Aspen.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Today was a driving day, about 7 hours ahead of us to a stopping point called Rangley on the way to Arches National Park in Utah. So it was another early start as we wanted to get up the local mountain, before we left for Rangley.

A misty morning view from the room.

The view from the top.

Early morning wildlife at the top..it's a ptarmigon by the way.

Drove out of Grand Teton past Jenny Lake, which was looking lovely in the morning light.

Stopped in a town called Jackson to top up with "gas" and get a sandwich and some drinks for the journey. We were pretty impressed with one of the towns antler arches..

Not too far along we saw some big horned mountain goats. These must have been young as the horns were not that big!

Then it was lots of the normal empty, seemingly endless roads..

Saw some more wildlife as we drove into some foothills, a herd of pronghorn.

We also came across quite a few roadworks, all of which seemed to take ages to get through. They seem to stop traffic both ways, do some work for 10 or 15 minutes, and then let the traffic go?? This time it was so bad they provided a car for us to follow through all the work!

Eventually we left Wyoming and entered into Utah.

Not long after we spotted a coyote by the road.

Drove through several small towns, some with odd sights.... He seemed very excited about drilling ??

A while later we left Utah and drove into Colorado again, Elaine was excited...

They also have some strange sights in their small towns??

Anyway, eventually we arrived in Rangley which, as you can see, is a "great place to live"....
Great that is if you want to live in the arse end of nowhere!