Rocks!

(Tässä on enimmäkseen kuvia, en kehdannut alkaa kääntään. Siispä vain englanniksi tällä kertaa.)

So, we're back, have been for a couple of days and I went through the 600 pics we took to get you the best shots. We went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, then north to Monument Valley, took UT-12 to Escalante, UT, and finally to Bryce Canyon in Utah. We drove some 2500 miles in 4 days, had a lot of fun and took a lot of pictures - mainly of rocks :) Click the pictures to enlarge.

The caverns were an eerie place. Absolutely gorgeous place, I loved the caverns! The caverns are some 750 feet below the surface, and naturally completely dark, but a Broadway professional lighting artist created the lighting in the caverns to show the best in the caverns.
carlsbad caverns 1

carlsbad caverns 2

carlsbad caverns 3

carlsbad caverns 4

carlsbad caverns 5
(These formations are known as draperies. The other formations or speleothems are stalagmites, stalactites, popcorns and soda straws.)

carlsbad caverns 7

carlsbad caverns 6

carlsbad caverns 8

carlsbad caverns 10

carlsbad caverns 11

carlsbad caverns 9

We drove north to the border of Arizona and Utah and then to Monument Valley.
monument valley 1

monument valley 5

monument valley 4

monument valley 3

monument valley 2

Some of the formations have names, such as The Mittens. I think this is the west mitten, I am not completely sure.
monument valley mitten

monument valley west mitten

We continued north to the Moki Dugway, which took us through the little village of Mexican Hat. The village has got its name after a rock formation nearby.
mexican hat

The Moki Dugway was in poor condition but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.
Moki Dugway 2

Moki Dugway 1

This valley is known as the Valley of Gods.
valley of gods

In Glen Canyon, I had the chance to play a little with my camera. This is the bridge crossing the Dirty Devil River (near Hite), and I took the first picture without zooming on a regular lense.
dirty devil river ja hite silta

The second picture was taken using the same lense but with zooming. (I am not a pro so I have no idea of the settings of the camera. :D)
dirty devil river ja hite silta 2

Last summer, we bought a zoom lens for our camera, and I used that to take this picture. Now you can see the bridge in detail.
dirty devil river ja hite silta 3

Driving through Glen Canyon, we saw another rock formation, named Jacob's Chair.
jacobs chair in glen canyon

We spent the night on the mountains, in Escalante, and saw the prettiest sunrise:
auringonnousu escalantessa

Finally, on the last morning, we arrived in Bryce Canyon, which is famous for the hoodoos formed by erosion by wind and water.
bryce canyon 1

There are several famous hoodoos, such as Thor's Hammer (in the left).
bryce canyon 4

bryce canyon 2

natural bridge bryce canyonissa

We hiked a short trail into the canyon and it was very pretty down there, too.
bryce canyon 5

bryce canyon 6

On our trip we saw a fair amount of wildlife. In Bryce, we saw a chipmunk, a crow and deer, and they didn't seem to be afraid of people at all. Neither were the numerous cows and some sheep and horses we saw grazing free on the mountains.
chipmunk brycessä

peuroja brycessä

korppi brycessä

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ihania kuvia! Bryce Canyon on mielestäni yksi kauneimmista paikoista SW Usassa. Ette sitten Zionissa poikenneet?

Anonymous said...

Vau! Hengästyttävän upeaa... Jonain kauniina päivänä, kunhan ensin voitan lotossa.

Tuulia said...

erikaw: me käytiin Zionissa viime talvena, ja ajettiin Brycestä pois Zionin kautta, muttei nyt tällä reissulla pysähdytty erikseen. :)

Anonymous said...

Wau!upeita kuvia!

Sonja ja Janne said...

Juuri blogissamme mietin, että miksi me muutettiin pois tuolta mantereelta. Ja näiden kuvien jälkeen on ihmetys taas vähän suurempi... :) S

Anonymous said...

Upeita kuvia ja upeita maisemia!

joko said...

upeita maisemia sielläpäin!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

--SP

Anonymous said...

Loistokuvia!!!

Unknown said...

Ällistyttävän upeaa!

Makepeace75 said...

Upeita kuvia. :o) Noista Bryce Canyonin hoodoista tulee mieleen semmoiset intialaiset ja thai-temppelit, joiden katot on täynnä veistettyjä ukkeleita. :D

kasiaiscarly said...

Those are some amazing pictures! We haven't spent much time out west other than Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon & Brian Head, in Utah.

Lolly said...

Your photographs are AMAZING! I lived near Carlsbad Caverns when I was a child, so I was happy to see so many of the caves again in your photos - truly beautiful!