Sonya, Clara & Lydia: Road Trip

Salt Lake City, Utah to Moab, Utah

After Salt Lake City, we were done with wild animals. The remaining days of our trip was spent in more desert-like areas with less vegetation and less wild animals (there were probably a lot of animals but it was less likely for visitors to see them). It was another 6 hour drive from Salt Lake City to Moab, which is our base for Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

Dead bugs on car windscreen

I mentioned in the 'Statistics Page' of this road trip's blog entries that we killed many many many bugs when they smashed onto our car windscreen when we were traveling on the roads. Here is a photo of our front windscreen with what were left of the bugs. This is not an accumulation from the start of our trip. Justin actually cleaned the windscreen a few times before this. I should have taken a photo of our front bumper. It would have provided a clearer picture :)

Dead bugs on car windscreen

And this is a closeup of the dead bugs.

Ducky Cloud

On long journeys, it got quite boring sometimes but you never know what you might see on the way. I see the image of a duck in the clouds in the photo above :)

Elephant Mountains

Then I saw elephants sleeping on the ground :) The texture of these hills looked very much like elephant skin.

Elephant Mountains

More elephant skin like mountains but the ridges on these were sharper.

Teletubbies Land

Justin called the landscape in the above photo "Teletubbies Land" :)

Mountains

The mountains in different areas had very different surface texture. Some where like the elephant skin, while others revealed layers of rocks of different colors, grain, shapes, etc.

Cattles

Along the way, we also see lots of cattle farms. They looked weird with black bodies and black and white faces. The one on the left in the photo below had a black eye :)

Black Eye Cow

Wind Mill

We also saw these windmills, which are used to generate electricity from wind power. There is one of these in Boston along I93 near the JFK Library.

Mountain Split

Mountains were carved to make way for roads.

Arches National Park, Utah

As we near Moab, we saw more and more of these rock formations in the horizon.

The Routes we took in Arches National Park, Utah and Canyonlands National Park

Arches National Park, Utah

After a good night's sleep, we headed off to Arches National Park.

Arches National Park, Utah

This is a view of the Moab Valley from within Arches National Park.

Arches National Park, Utah

Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah

We stopped at the Park Avenue Viewpoint. Some of the rock formations actually have names. We didn't really bothered with them :( If I know the name of the rock formation, I will indicate below the photo. Better still, if you know any others, let me know!

Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah

Courthouse Towers, Arches National Park, Utah

Three Gossips, Arches National Park, Utah (The rocks in the background! Not Sonya, Clara and Justin!)

Three Gossips, Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Tower of Babel, Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

The most famous rock formation in Arches National Park is the Delicate Arch and we thought we make that our first stop.

Collared Lizard

Just outside the carpark, we were greeted by our little green friend. The lizard was not really afraid of people. One couple said it jumped on them and it had been just resting by the plant for about 20 minutes. But I scared it away when my camera went clicked :(

Collared Lizard

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Upper Viewpoint, Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

It is a half mile hike uphill to the Upper Viewpoint of the Delicate Arch. There was another 3 mile trail where you can go right under the arch itself but the weather was just too hot for the kids to be under the sun for hours.

Upper Viewpoint, Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Have you noticed that Justin was wearing only 1 slipper? Sonya accidentally stepped on Justin's slipper and the strap broke :(

Upper Viewpoint, Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Trail to Upper Viewpoint, Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Sonya walked all 0.5 mile of the trail herself :) Her "legs were painful" after that :(

Skyline Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Windows Section, Arches National Park, Utah

This a view of the Windows Section in the park. The park is generally divided into a few different areas. The Windows Section is where openings were formed in the rocks and they resembled windows.