San Francisco treat... or trick?

These next 8 pics are along the trail and around the large Skyline arch.

The next 5 pics are of Aztec Butte and the views from the top. In the pic below can you see our car in the distant parking lot. We hiked from there to the butte and straight up the rocky cliff following those stacked rocks the whole way. It was our first hike in this park and oddly enough was also the toughest trail of the day.

The next few pics are of the unusual Upheaval Dome. Scientists are still not agreed on what caused this to form. The two theories are that it is a salt dome or meteor site. Until about 1995 the salt dome theory was the more prominent one stating that salt was pushed up through the rock by pressure from underneath the surface. However, in the 1990's a team from NASA did seismic research and found that the meteor theory to be more true. Just this year they found shocked quartz a very good sign that it was a meteor indeed. They study showed that the formation was from around the Jurassic time period. Could it be what killed the dinosaurs? Also can you see Joe on the protruding rock facing the dome? It's to the left of the tree.

These shots are from Buckcanyon overlook at the Colorado river and of Candlestick rock.

This is Grand View Point overlook. Straight ahead is the Green river that flows into the Colorado from the last shots somewhere off to the left. The last 3 pics are of Junction butte and a lizard that came to hang out while I was shooting these on the cliff edge.

This set is of Mesa arch directly across from Aztec butte. Those are Lasal mountains in the background , still on fire. However this arch is at Canyonlands and not Arches park as you might think. The tower out in the background is called Airport tower.

This next set is of Dead Horse Point. Legend has it that horse thieves used to bottleneck wild mustangs out to the point where they would take the finest ones and the others were left to die of starvation and/or lack of water. This is how it supposedly got it's name. The first few are of the point and the mighty Colorado river that carved it. The last few are of Pyramid butte way out in the background. This is where they filmed the climbing scene from the begining of MI2, which is the main reason i've always wanted to visit this area. They also filmed the final chase scene from Thelma & Louise here as well as Indian Jones movies.

These 3 were taken of Mexican Hat rock on the road to Monument Valley.

This is Monument Valley Utah.

Obviously, these are from Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Let me explain in a little more detail about the normal yet dramatic weather. When we arrived that afternoon at the canyon entrance we inquired about camping at Havasu falls, and indian reservation on the outer edge of the canyon. We were informed that the trail and campground were closed due to severe flooding. As a matter of fact it was so bad that the Redlands dam burst and the entire Havasupai tribe had to be evacuated. Around 400 people had to be airlifted out because the only way to Supai and the falls are by air or strenous hiking trails from the Grand Canyon itself. Dissapointed and shocked we just stayed at the east canyon campground. After setting up the campsite we ventured down to the first canyon overlook point where the watchtower is located. We then drove bout 20 miles towards the main vistor center at the middle of the canyon, stopping only once at the grand overlook point. The pics from the point are following the ones of us at watchtower point. We decided to not go any further because of the ominous storm rolling in and the fact that it was suddenly about 20 degrees cooler (low 50's) with extremely high wind gusts (25-35 mph) that would almost blow you off the canyon rim. It's a good thing we went back to the campsite because we had just enough time to eat and get settled in the tent before the storm let loose. Their was lightning, thunder, mad crazy wind, and never ending torrential rain. This rain ended up flooding the tent as the three of us huddled together in the middle to try and keep from being soaked. We did not succeed. Poor Joe had a puddle on his side and was soaked, I got squished by them (since i was in the middle) and my legs and head were wet, Katie was drenched on one side of her body and because of that growing puddle Joe ended up going to the car. The puddle got big enough that I and Katie ended up getting wet like we'd just gotten outta the shower. Needless to say before the sun even came up ,once the rain died to a drizzle we packed up and rolled out. Not a great way to end the trip but still a good reminder of the unpredictable awesome power of mother nature.