PICTURES OF MOUNTAIN SCENERY, PAGE 2

Although the mountainous areas of Arizona and Utah are probably not actually considered part of the Rocky Mountains, since they are west of the main "spine" of the Rockies, they are still east of the Great Basin and therefore I have chosen to include some pictures from these areas on this page.

Note: You can click on thumbnail picture to see full size version.

Sunset Crater National Monument is located a few miles southeast of the Grand Canyon and includes an ancient volcanic cinder cone surrounded by lava fields as shown here.

The Colorado River can be seen here flowing through Marble Canyon, which is east of the Grand Canyon. If you look closely, you can see an arch on the brink of the canyon on the left side just before the river bends to the right.

This is a view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. A spur of the Bright Angel trail can be seen in the distance going to a dead end at a view point on a plateau part way down in the canyon.

This picture was taken near the east end of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. A small portion of the Colorado River can be seen in the distance where it enters the east end of the canyon.

This is a view from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, it is not possible to see down into the canyon far enough to see the Colorado River flowing through the bottom of it from most readily accessible areas of the North Rim.

One of the prominent scenic features of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is the Angel's Wing, with its interesting hole in the side. One can walk out to the end on the flat surface of this formation for a spectacular view (provided the air is clear on that day, which it was not when I took the picture as indicated by the blue haze in the distance).

A short hike down a side canyon on the North Rim takes one to this area where there is a ledge with spring fed pools of water.

These spring fed pools of water are on the ledge in the side canyon as mentioned above.

Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon, but rather, an interesting formation of rock "columns" on the side of a mountain, with the valley below visible in the distance.

The "column" nature of the rock formations at Bryce Canyon can be readily seen in this view. There are trails that lead down around and between some of the columns.

Interesting views of the rock formations can be seen by hiking down various trails into the "column" area.

This picture of an arch was also taken in Bryce Canyon National Park.

The Narrows, in Zion National Park, is an intriguing canyon through which the Zion River flows. When the river is low, as seen here, if a person is equiped with proper foot wear (I was not), he can hike up the river bed in the the canyon for additional scenic views. After watching a man do this, it became evident to me that there are holes or deeper spots in the river bed that were not immediately evident while standing on a rock in the river to take this picture.

This picture was taken in the Kolob Canyons area of Zion National Park. Kolob Canyons is accessed by a different road than the main part of the park, and is much less known than the more commmonly visited area around the Zion River.

When I hiked to the Double Arch Alcove in the Kolob Canyons area, I did now know what to expect. One of the interesting sights there was this large arched roof cavern illuminated by reflected sun light. The floor in the lower right corner of the picture was the only area that was not damp from dripping water; hence the lighter color.

Probably the best known feature of Arches National Park is Delicate Arch, shown here. This picture was taken some distance away from the arch from near the road. If you look closely at the enlarged picture, you can see two people between the left foot of the arch and the edge of the picture, which gives an idea of what a huge formation this is.

The base of Delicate Arch can be accessed by a trail that gradually ascends to the rear ot it. Despite the cloudy weather, which did not make for an optimum photographic situation, I had to wait awhile for a time when there were no people in the way in order to take this picture.

The clouds were moving in again when my wife took this picture of Double Arch in Arches National Park. The large size of this formation can be seen by noting the relative size of the person (me) standing slightly left of center at the base of the arches. In this picture, I am about 18 pixels high, and wearing a blue sweatshirt and tan pants.

RETURN TO FRONT PAGE