23 January 2017

Stardate 2017.060




Sandstone Dreaming

What can I say? I grew up amongst the stuff. I miss it.

I can feel the rough grit of sandstone on my bare skin. I can feel the gritty, suspended sediment load in the runoff. I can smell the heady scent of wet sand, silt and clay. I can smell the earthy scent of rain and snow wetting the stone. The ultra-fragrant wet sage teases my senses. I can smell the hard-to-penetrate river-lining tamarisk. Fragrant cacti blooms catch my nose. I can feel the cool, wet wind retaining a hint of winter. The high desert spring taunts my soul...

Catching a bit of weather, four major towers from the Fisher Towers group are shown in the following pic. Left to right rise Kingfisher, Echo Tower, Cottontail and the Titan. In short, big leagues climbing on dangerous and difficult mudstones with a colorful climbing history. Look them up.


I've previously posted the following pics along the way in one form or another. Since the Moab mountain bike and hiking season begins a little over a month from now, I thought it all right to have a little tease post of one of my favorite regions. Let's start with the Onion Creek area of Professor Valley. I hope you enjoy the pics.




Amasa Back, Moab, Utah




Behind the Rocks, Moab, Utah




Princess Plume




Horsethief Bench, Loma, Colorado




Big drop onto Horsethief Bench from Mary's Loop, Loma, Colorado




Horsethief Bench, Colorado




Moab, Utah




Behind the Rocks, Utah




Dead Horse Point, Utah area and a sand-trap




Climbers on Ancient Art, Fisher Towers, Utah.




Sunrise on Castleton Tower (far left tower), Utah




Success on Ancient Art's summit




Arches National Park




I hope you enjoyed the show.

Adios

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, I enjoyed it very much! Those towers are breathtaking.

    Some of the hills in the "Behind the Rocks" photos remind me of the hills in the North Dakota Badlands at Teddy Roosevelt NP - same rounded shape, same suggestion of having been pared from the top down by rain and water flow. (Only the ones in ND were striated, whereas these look solid red.)

    Happy almost-Moab season!

    ReplyDelete

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