Magnificent Canyonlands Sculpted by Glaciers, Wind and Rain

Magnificent Canyonlands Sculpted by Glaciers, Wind and Rain

By Pamela O’Meara

No wonder John Wayne movies were filmed around the red rock formations in Monument Valley surrounding Goulding’s Lodge, an old trading post on the Navajo Reservation at the northern edge of Arizona. The scenery is fantastic, especially when the sun shines on the rock formations, intensifying the red color we viewed from the lodge.

After taking many sunrise photos, we headed north through Monument Valley to Natural Bridges National Monument and then Canyonlands National Park in Utah. About 250 miles later, we ended up in Moab, UT.

On the way, we drove up Moki Dugway, a dirt road with steep switchbacks leading up to a plateau going up 1,100 feet in three miles and overlooking the Valley of the Gods. It was a bit scary but the scenery was amazing. We also stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument and then continuing north, we passed the Mexican Hat rock formation and then stopped at Newspaper Rock, located in the southeast corner of Canyonlands and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There was a wall of petroglyphs – hundreds of black figures of humans and animals on a dark red sandstone cliff -- dating from BC to 1350 A.D., the sign said.

In the adjacent parking lot, a Navajo woman was selling necklaces she made with sterling silver and beads. She displayed them on the hood of her car, and I bought one with a turtle pendant, which she said would protect me from evil spirits.

The Colorado and Green rivers meet up in Canyonlands and eons ago helped form the deep valleys. It was hard to imagine the earth rising up to form mountains and the melting glaciers forming rivers that carve out enormous valleys.

Further north in Canyonlands by the visitors’ center, we talked to three young women who were getting ready for a bicycle trail ride 50 miles that day and 50 the next before they headed back home to Salt Lake City. A number of people were out hiking. Since I’m a bit of a scardy cat freaked out by fear of falling, we settled for a few somewhat flat walks among the piñon pine and juniper trees to look out over the canyon in several spots. At some lookouts, we saw the snow-covered LaSalle Mountains far in the background.

In one spot, several black cows stood along the road, hovering over another one that was hit by a car and killed during the previous night. They seemed to be grieving.

One disheartening surprise was the presence of cricket pumps and pump jacks drilling for oil, sometimes camouflaged in green, just outside the eastern and northern boundaries of the park. A park ranger said drilling has increased in the last five years. We saw a natural gas line being installed to reclaim the gas being burned off from the oil, and we saw tanker trucks on the road.

The ranger said it’s BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and open lease by law so ranchers lease it for cattle just as oil companies lease the oil rights – and there are 128 leases for oil extraction. Potash is also under ground.

The drilling is controversial as evidenced by a front-page article I read in the Moab newspaper that night.

But in spite of the drilling just outside the park border, visitors like me can’t help but be overwhelmed by the stunning beauty of Canyonlands and hope the land won’t be damaged. The National Parks Conservation Association strives to protect this land amazing land.

The big problem on a trip like this is that taking one photo or even 10 or a panorama just cannot capture the beauty and immensity of the canyons and mountain croppings and colors in the rocks.

Photos by Pamela O'Meara

Saguaros stand tall in National Park in Arizona

Saguaros stand tall in National Park in Arizona

Pamela O’Meara

Each time I’ve seen Saguaro cacti in Arizona, I’m reminded of soldiers standing at attention on hillsides or reaching toward the sky to worship the sun. Some Native American tribes may believe the saguaros are their dead ancestors.

I’ve heard people say the saguaros don’t grow any arms till age 75. In the meantime, birds peck holes in their bodies to make nests. Baby saguaros begin their lives from seeds growing in the shade of palo verde trees, which are called “nurse trees” for providing the in right growing conditions – shade, nutrients, protection from storms. The palo verde eventually die off, while saguaros slowly grow into giants, some eventually reaching 70 feet.

Saguaro National Park in Tucson, AZ is home to the giant cacti that are found only in the Sonoran Desert, including southwest Arizona and part of California and Mexico. This national park has districts on the east and west sides of Tucson with a visitor center at each side. The Tucson Mountains in the west and the Rincon Mountains in the east are full of these soldiers. Many other kinds of cacti, including barrel, cholla and prickly pear are abundant in the park.

President Herbert Hoover created the Saguaro National Monument in1933. In1994, Congress elevated it to a National Park.

The park has 150 miles of well-maintained hiking trails. While hiking in the backcountry in the summer is not advisable, the roads have plenty of pullouts for picture taking, and the outdoor Desert Museum adjacent to the western park offers plenty of saguaros up close. I’ve taken some great photos in this museum but for sunset photos, I drove into the park to watch the setting sun put a red glow onto the giant saguaros.

Photos By Pamela O'Meara

On the road from Tucson to Monument Valley

On the road from Tucson to Monument Valley

Pamela O’Meara

Goulding's Lodge.

Traveling from Tucson, AZ to Monument Valley, UT, I saw the most amazing scenery, which varied from the mountains in Tucson with saguaro cacti to flatter land to different mountain ranges with various colorful rock formations and through the Apache Reservation. Then my friend’s GPS showed a shortcut and suddenly, we were on dirt and gravel roads for hours through the Navajo and Hopi reservations, passing ranches with occasional horses or cows. We had to turn back a couple of times when the road nearly petered out.

We went past a couple of oil rigs and the Peabody coal mining operation. I picked up the Navajo Times and read that in the 1950s and ‘60s, the Navajos were aggressively making deals with uranium mining companies and made lots of money. Then they got lots of sores that turned out to be cancer.

Eventually a report was written about the dangers of uranium but written in English, which most Navajos couldn’t read then. The ones who could read ignored it the way people ignored the cancer-causing risks of smoking cigarettes back then.

Goulding's in Arizona

Nowadays, the tribe members are signing contracts –they do have legal advisors – for oil rights and expecting to make lots of money by drilling on their tribal lands. We saw some drilling rigs off the road.

The land formations and colors on the trip were pretty amazing. We got to Monument Valley before sunset, about two hours later than planned, due to the GPS fast route being way off.

We spent the night at Goulding’s Lodge, once an old trading post, nestled right at the bottom of a huge red rock formation, with other formations visible from the patio. Many John Wayne movies once were filmed there, Visitors can take four-wheel drive tours though this land or camp in the area. In the dining room of this international destination, we could hear different languages being spoken.

Tomorrow we will tour Monument Valley and take lots of photos of this spectacular place.

Photos by Pam O'Meara