Jude's Page
(Turn on your speakers!)

The last of our vacation pictures are back from processing.
Here are some of the highlights.

This is Canyonlands National Park, UT, Island in the Sky area. Canyonlands is divided by 2 rivers into 3 parts: Island in the Sky, Needles, and the Maze. Island in the Sky is the most accessible. The Maze is accessible only to 4-wheel drive vehicles.
Here is another scenic vista in Canyonlands.
We decided to follow the trail up this butte. A Ranger told us that on top we would find an Indian granary (place where they stored grain.) Sometimes it felt like the trail went straight up the rock!
After much huffing and puffing we finally reached the top. This is the view from one of the granaries. Well worth the effort!
This is one of the ancient granaries we climbed up to see. It was hard to imagine the Indians climbing up there with baskets of grain on their backs.

These are petroglyphs scratched into the rock "varnish". The rock is called "Newspaper Rock". It is a Utah State Historical Monument located near the Needles area of Canyonlands. Pueblo Indians are said to have etched their activities on the rock from B.C. to A.D.1300.
This is a view of the Needles area of Canyonlands. The Needles themselves are on the horizon. They can only be reached by 4-wheel drive vehicles. Nearer are these weird mushroom-shaped sandstone formations.
Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado was our next stop. Here is me at one of the many Pueblo Indian ruins in the park. In the years from 1100 to 1300 Mesa Verde's Pueblo Indian population reached its peak of perhaps several thousand.
This is the largest of the many Indian cliff dwelling ruins in the park. This one is called "Cliff Palace." To get to the Palace we walked down a steep stone staircase and up 2 ladders. The Indians entered by way of little notches carved in the sandstone cliff as hand and foot holds.
Our next National Park was Petrified Forest, AZ. (No, it's NOT a forest of standing trees made of rock!) It was a "real" forest 200 million years ago. Here is Dorothy standing near some petrified logs.

This is the Painted Desert. It is located in the northern part of Petrified Forest National Park. The petrified wood is in the southern part of the park. The colors here were beautiful!
Our final stop the evening before we flew back to St. Louis was the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. There we witnessed a spectacular sunset. A perfect ending to a wonderful trip!

That's all Folks!

To send Jude a message click here.

To see Pat's Page click here.

Archives:
Trip Page 2
Trip Page 1
Easter
April Fools
Pat's New Car
Tom's Birthday
Spring Page 1
Spring Page 2
St. Pat's Page
Chris' Birthday Edition


FastCounter by bCentral