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beluga

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Thursday

It rained all night and most of today.   Thunder, lightning, light rain, heavy rain, little clearings that fooled us into thinking it was done.....wet dogs, damp towels, but beautiful and dramatic skies.

dark skies over the dog park


Yesterday was an entirely different story.   Once again, the weather ruled our movements.   We left Beluga before lunch, it was in the mid 60's and sunny.   We packed our lunch and drove into Canyonlands National Park, Islands in the Sky, to see the iconic Mesa arch and whatever else we had time for.    We had a late afternoon date with Lumpia, we couldn't be late.

There were only a few cars at the parking lot for the Arch.   We left the jeep and walked the short loop out to the edge where the arch was waiting.

Mesa Arch waits on the edge of the world

We had the end of the trail to ourselves.   Dave was about to walk under the arch when he discovered that it was directly on the edge of a cliff, and very very down on the other side.

Dave crawls to the edge

On a clear day you can see the snow covered LaSal Mountains framed by the narrow arch.   Heavy snow clouds were hanging low over the distant mountain tops so we didn't get that picture, but it was nonetheless a breathtaking view.



We thought we had all afternoon, so we scrambled around the rocks to the left and enjoyed the vistas from there.


can you see Washerwoman arch?
can you envision her in her long skirts?


When we turned to go back to the arch for a another look, we found we were no longer alone.....


Ah well, at least we had her to ourselves for a little while.

On the way back to the jeep we enjoyed the quiet, the birdsong and the little things at our feet.










We stopped at a few overlooks to marvel at the vastness of the canyon lands and then headed back to Beluga.





Around 3 o'clock we walked across the driveway to Steve and MonaLiza's with our chairs, drinks and a small snack offering,   The main attraction was her famous lumpia and pancet!    We had another very nice get together and left with our tummy's full of delicious food.    Thanks again MonaLiza.




5 comments:

  1. That is a wonderful photo of the Washer Woman!! So glad you were able to have some time alone at the arch:)

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  2. Yes, I did see the Washer Woman in her full skirt! The mesa arch is another reason we have to come back to Moab some other time when weather cooperates, we are missing a lot !
    So glad you enjoyed my cooking, I know the lumpia and the pancit are crowd pleasers. Im always happy to share it with friends.

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  3. That arch is wonderful! We've not yet been to the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands….it's on the ever growing list….and how fun that you had those views all to yourself for a bit!
    Looks like another very fun gathering of very fun people. :-)

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  4. Mesa and Washer Woman have been on the list for a couple of years...need to get that checked off soon!

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  5. You got some really great shots, so wonderful to have a beautiful spot all to yourselves - for a bit. The washer woman is amazing with her big skirts. Love the little vignette with the purple flowers and driftwood. Now Dave....crawling to the edge is fine, but standing on the edge like that? Makes my toes and other body parts curl!! Still, it's a great pic :-) Good times with the gang!!

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