We finally hit a wall today. Susan and I are dog-tired and Lonnie needs a break from a toe blister. So the 3 of us took the day off and chilled by taking a drive and visiting Moab. Meanwhile, Marcia and John hiked the Double O Arch Trail in Arches NP.
We started our scenic drive by taking the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway about 10 miles upstream from Moab. It was rather boring with the same serene river scenes over and over.
We retreated back to Moab, crossed the road, and took the Lower Colorado River Scenic Byway. It was much more interesting. The road abutted cliffs on which some rock climbers were making ascents. It is cool to watch them although we all think they are insane. As we drove on, there was a sign stating "Petroglyphs" but we drove on.
Then we saw a sign for dinosaur tracks. That piqued my interest so we pulled in to a parking lot. The lot served as a starting point for several trails, including the Poison Spider UTV Trail. A sign kiosk in the corner talked about the dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs that could be found 1/4 mile down a trail. We looked at it briefly and determined that we didn't have the right shoes to do it today. But it stirred my interest in the petroglyph sign that we passed by so we returned to it.
At the pull-off by the sign, we could see petroglyphs on the cliffs about 20 feet above the road surface. There were multiple panels of them.
We wondered how they could have gotten so high but eventually we concluded that the road construction had removed a sloping bank that would have allowed the Native Americans to create these with ease.
We then headed back to Moab for a stop in town for some retail shop visits and light lunch at the Moab Diner. We relaxed at home for a while fully aware that it could be a late night of star-gazing. We went to dinner early at The Moab Brewery and headed off to Dead Horse Point State Park. It was right next-door to Canyonlands and took about 45 minutes to get there. We wanted to be in position for the sunset. Before the sunset, the lighting was great for some canyon shots.
As the sun was setting, I got a lucky shot of Icarus flying too close to the sun.
Even after sunset, the scenes were beautiful.
But we weren't done yet. A star party was scheduled at the visitor center at 9:00. We wanted to be in prime position to use the telescopes so we went straight to the visitor center and waited. As it darkened, huge numbers of stars became visible, including the Milky Way. The Ranger's presentation included pointing out several constellations. Then he set up 2 telescopes for viewing. The larger one focused on Nebulae Omarosa or some other name I didn't recognize nor care about. It looked like blotches and dots in the telescope. The smaller telescope was focused on Saturn. It was cool as the rings were clearly seen. A second round had the larger telescope pointed to the Andromeda Strain or some other name I didn't know nor care about. It also looked like blotches and dots. The smaller one was pointed to Jupiter and, again, it was cool. No colors were seen; it was pure white. But 4 of its moons were lined up with 1 on the left and 3 on the right.
I tried to take some pictures of the night sky. None of the Milky Way turned out and only 1 of the stars.
We got home late, but it was a relaxing and recuperative day.
Susan’s quote of the day: “I'm dragging my tail." I agreed. We needed a day off from exertion.
The highlights - Petroglyphs and sunset.
The regrets - None.
Today's total miles - 141
Today's miles from start to destination - 0
Today's miles on side trips - 141
Today's miles driven by Paul - 141
Today's miles driven by Susan - 0
Today's hours in car - 3.5
Total Miles Hiked - 0.5
Cumulative total miles - 6,799
Cumulative miles from start to destination - 3,668
Cumulative miles on side trips - 3,131
Cumulative miles driven by Paul - 5,817
Cumulative miles driven by Susan - 587
Cumulative hours in car - 139.5
Cumulative Miles Hiked - 44.7
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