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Showing posts with the label U.S. National Parks

Zion National Park, Utah

The Watchman Long before entering park grounds, we drove through a countryside of sandstone mesas and towering cliffs of incredible colors. I was thinking that we were inside Zion National Park until we passed through the south gate and parked our car at the Visitor Center. The soaring cliffs in the photo above was our welcome committee. View from the Temple of Sinawava It was late afternoon, the heat had dissipated and most of the tourists had left for the day. We took the shuttle that goes around the park and stops at several places along the way to drop off and pick up passengers. It takes about 80 minutes roundtrip from the Visitor Center to the Temple of Sinawava which is the last stop before it returns to point of origin. I got off at Sinawava to gape at towering monoliths and get a full view of the clifftops which is a stretch to see from the windows of the shuttle. It would be a great idea to have glass roofs for these shuttles to better see the corridor of sandstone cliffs

Aerial Views of the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead

The Grand Canyon We had this unexpected treat to fly over the Grand Canyon from Atlanta to Las Vegas last week. And we were seated on the right side of the plane to boot! It was a challenge to take these images through double glass pane windows using a simple digital camera from 32,000 feet. I had to photoshop these photos for a sharper image. The results show the incredible topography of the Grand Canyon. Notice the Colorado River cutting its way along Canyon walls. The walls are about a mile deep and 18 miles wide. To get a different perspective of the Grand Canyon, try cruising down the river in a pumpboat. There is a helicopter tour from the Western Rim that goes into the Canyon (an exhilirating ride to say the least) and drops off passengers by the water's edge where the pumpboat is waiting.  For more info go to the National Park Service website: www.nps.gov/grca Lake Mead Lake Mead is the reservoir that was created by the damming of the Colorado Rive

Into the Grand Canyon

It took millions of years to form the 227-mile long Grand Canyon, yet visitors to the site have only a few  hours to experience this handiwork of nature that can only be described in superlatives. Most visitors head to the South Rim and some go the extra distance to the North Rim when it is open from mid-May to mid-October.  Fewer still head to the West Rim, which sits at the tail end of the Canyon on the  Hualapai Indian Reservation, a short ride from Las Vegas through the 900-year old Joshua Forest. The Joshua tree is so called because its branches are outstretched like the arms of the prophet Joshua  as he pointed his people to the Promised Land. It is part of the yucca brevifolia family and has sword-shaped  leaves and may bear a white or greenish flower that looks like an enlarged cone. Rainfall in February produced low-lying yellow and pink desert flowers, giving color to the parched landscape.  And like a mirage, we spotted three wild mustangs, one of them a dazzling white.