Too much geology (like that's even possible)

9/10:

Another day in wonderland! Today's destination was Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands. We headed to Dead Horse Point first. I was very pleased to find that last night's curb-jumping escapade had not left Jane with any lasting issues. What a trooper.

It was quite misty in the early morning, especially up on top of the mesa that Dead Horse Point is viewed from. Could have been a huge bummer as we couldn't see anything, but within 5 minutes of being there the mists all burned off and the morning turned out to be quite lovely! The overlook had a nice rim trail that allowed you to see for dozens of miles in any direction.

Creekbeds glowing because they actually have water in them for once!

Bend in the river below Dead Horse Point

Odd terraced/divided lake back there beyond the butte - might have been the hatchery?

Now, I was a little concerned that Jane would take the opportunity to make Dead Horse Point ironic. It would have been totally embarrassing if she had caused me issues up there. But! She did no such thing and we continued on to Canyonlands just down the road without mishap.

The first stop at Canyonlands was surprisingly not any sort of Canyon! Instead it was a semi-famous and very perplexing geologic structure known as Upheaval Dome. The trail to this thing was one of those that gives you the option of going to the easy overlook, the harder (and cooler) overlook, and the hardest (and coolest) overlook. So of course I needed to go to the hardest coolest overlook. Because this thing was seriously cool! Basically, Upheaval Dome is a big pit with a bunch of rock thrown up in the middle of it. The rock forming the sides of the pit is pretty heavily folded, but in a weird direction relative to the rest of the rocks in the center. Geologists apparently haven't figured out what formed the structure - could be meteorite-related, or salt dome-related, or something totally different.

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I continued to puzzle over the geology of the dome as we hiked back down - like I would somehow figure out what caused it where dozens of actual scientists haven't been able to. Luckily I was distracted before I could hurt myself. Once again, Jane had collected an entourage.

A train of people, all of whom had stopped to admire my piece of history

Completely oblivious to other people (including park rangers) trying to drive in the road

By now there must be thousands of pictures of Jane out on the internet. I should have put a little placard in the back window explaining the details of my trip. Guess I'll do that next time I'm on a road trip with her!

From Upheaval Dome we headed to Mesa Arch, a brief hike that leads to a large arch right on the edge of the cliff. The views through this thing were awesome! There were a lot of people around but everyone was very considerate about getting out of pictures and taking their turns at the arch, so I was able to get a lot of good shots. Here's one showing the pinnacles through the arch:

Next (and last) for the day was the spectacular Grand View Point trail. This trail is pretty short and generally not too steep or difficult, so it was a nice way to spend a hot afternoon. The views are totally amazing - mostly the trail looks down into the valley at the series of finger-like canyons carved out by rivers millions of years ago. Inside the canyons are pinnacles that escaped erosion. It's really interesting to think about how all these things formed, but I won't bore you guys with that because I know that the majority of you aren't geologists or even remotely interested in rocks! So here's a couple pictures of the coolness instead:

And that concludes my pictures for this post for today! The rest of the day was pretty standard: driving back to Moab, finding a decent place to eat downtown, wandering around, and eating cake. No offroading adventures for Jane and I today, at least! Tomorrow we'll be heading back to Arches in the morning, then on to Bryce Canyon for our fifth and final park in the Mighty Five tour!

Kelly signing out.