Don Barrett (aka DBs travels)'s photos

Though you can't tell it from these pictures, there is something about these rocks that reminds me of the creamy orange candies often served around Christmas.

Along the Burr Trail.

Zion National Park, on the east entrance road.

Part of my never-ending fascination with trees that grow out of rocks -- this is on the east entrance road to Zion National Park.

From Brian Head (just north of Cedar Breaks) you can see southeast to cliffs around Bryce Canyon National Park (the light colored shadows across the lower center).

Bristlecone pines are among the oldest living trees, many over 1000 years and the oldest on this point being 1600 years old. They don't tell you which of the trees at the point is 1600 years old, though my guess is that it is the tree in the next picture. Most bristlecone pines that I have seen (in California and at Great Basin National Park) do not have nearly as much greenery as the one in this picture.

The view that Cedar Breaks National Monument is famous for -- this is from the north rim.

About 20 miles west of Bluff is the Valley of the Gods, which is reachable by a dirt road. The first time I visited them in the 1990's, you could count on driving the 17 mile dirt road and seeing no one. The area is much more well-known now with cars coming through every few minutes on summer days. Solitude is still possible, except when someone in a giant SUV drives through too fast with their windows rolled up and air conditioning on, 'consuming' the landscape rather than experiencing it -- and generating lots of dust and noise.

Bank building in Blanding, Utah, which is south of Moab and north of Bluff.

Just west of Bluff, on the highway to Mexican Hat.

Remains from the Holly group at Hovenweep. See nearby picture for more details.

Pictures from the trail around the Square Tower Group at Hovenweep. See nearby picture for more detail.

Native American ruins at Hovenweep National Monument in southeast Utah. Though the structures at Hovenweep aren't quite as complex as those at some other sites, the park is more interesting. That's partly because of how the main trail was laid out -- a very comfortable 2 mile hike, mostly on rock, with some trees and shade. Since the structures themselves were smaller, and the area looked more habitable, it was also easier to imagine the area as it might have been at the time of Puebloan settlement in the 13th century. The hike described above is for the Square Tower group, which is nearest the visitor center. The structures there are mainly around a canyon that is about a mile long and not particularly deep. This view is from the where the trail goes down in the canyon, most of the structures are on the canyon edge. Note the oddly formed rock just to the lower left of the center -- that's actually a structure. Pictures of Hovenweep are of a summer and winter trips.

See commentary in nearby picture regarding recreation at Lake Powell.

See commentary in nearby picture regarding recreation at Lake Powell.

To get from the area around Bluff to the Burr Trail and to head back towards Boulder, you have to cross Lake Powell (Glen Canyon National Recreational Area). The crossing of Lake Powell is always a source of mixed emotions for me. The ferry crossing itself, and the perspective it gives of the canyon, is rewarding. But it is depressing observing the overall party culture that is associated with the lake, and the consequences of that. Large houseboats and speedboats, exhaust from outboards motors, and the amount of party trash that is likely to end up in the lake, do not exactly reflect a spirit of communing with nature -- and I suspect that many don't realize that they are spilling oil and trash into their drinking water. On the other hand, I respect that even the 'party' type of contact with nature can inspire some concern with nature and balance. The nearby pictures are only of the Halls Crossing marina area, there are also large marinas on the Bullfrog side (the other end of the ferry trip).

From a short hike up a wash (morning sun)

From the top of the Moki Dugway, looking east over the Valley of the Gods.