[Christina] Day 2: Southern Utah Geology Bonanza!

(Day of Monday, June 20, 2016)

After a brief grocery stop in St. George, Utah (mostly apples, bread products, and Nutella), we set out intently to answer the question, "Exactly how much geology CAN one see in a day?" We also set out to answer the question "how long can we go without getting on a freeway?", which turned out to be quite a while, and quite a worthwhile question to ask, as winding through the desert and forest on non-freeway roads has been the best part of the drive.

First stop-- Zion National Park!  More dune-scale cross-bedded sandstones!  It's the Navajo Sandstone, the same formation we saw in the Valley of Fire.

[Elizabeth sidebar] Zion's main feature, the spectacular winding drive through a canyon, did not disappoint, but it was quite busy, so we drove through, found a really neat spot a bit off the beaten path to take pictures, and then resumed our adventure. Zion is one of the most well-visited National Parks, which is understandable, as the road leading through it is the most direct road across this section of Southern Utah. But quite spectacular, nonetheless. [end Elizabeth sidebar]

Second stop-- Dixie National Forest!  Paleosols!

Third stop-- Bryce Canyon National Park!  Paleocene lacustrine deposits! [Elizabeth sidebar]: The major feature of Bryce, the Hoodoos, did not disappoint. Hoodoos are vertical pillars of sediment, often lined up together. They are an erosional feature, in that they form as freeeze-thaw cycles get into cracks in the sedimentary deposits, and then weather out small sections of sediment. First, often, they form arches, with connections between the pillars, and then the arch tops fall down, leaving two pillars. Or 200,000 pillars, if you go to the Bryce Canyon Ampitheater. Definitely my favorite national park thus far (sorry Zion). [end Elizabeth sidebar]

Hoodoos-4-U!

 

Fourth stop-- Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument! [Elizabeth sidebar] The road from Bryce to Capitol Reef National Park (UT-12), is glorious. Up and around the sides of mountains and deserts, it winds through Grand Staircase, through 500 million years of Earth's 'recent' history. [end sidebar] However, the best part about this area was not the geology but the ecology.  We went up and over a mountain, and you could very clearly see the difference in vegetation on the leeward and windward sides of the mountain due to the rain shadow. [Elizabeth sidebar] This drive also involved many cattle crossings, and some other equally spectacular wildlife views (a few deer even). We were very, very glad to have taken it, as the views and the wildlife, as well as the distinct lack of huge buses of tourists clammoring to all take the same picture were really wonderful. [end sidebar]

You can see the barren desert in the distance.

Fifth stop-- Capitol Reef National Park!  While we didn't have much time to admire the geology - we'd taken quite a long time getting there on UT-12 and arrived just as dusk was turning to darkness - we were able to snare a lovely campsite, and settled down (this time in the tent, as we'd learned from our Valley of Fire experiment) in the somewhat cooler evening for a much, much more pleasant night's sleep than the one before.

Our playlist for the day?  Dramatic Classical symphonies.  It certainly seemed appropriate.