Up and Down - Two National Parks

We spent half a day touring Arches National Park.  All our views were from below, looking up....

This was an arch whose top has finally worn away and fallen down

can you see  tiny Dave? (bottom left...in a red shirt)

Dave says he'll use this picture as a template for Lewis' tail...

see the people standing under the arch?

this small arch makes this rock formation look like a giant elephant head to me

The next day we explored Canyonlands National Park and all our views there were from the top, looking down...

we drove all the way to the top of these mesas

it helps to understand the enormous scale of this area if you can see those  little tiny white cars on the  top of the mesa,  can you see them?

the Colorado River is at the bottom of these deep canyons

once again, Dave and his red shirt investigate things off the trail

a storm was brewing

These odd, dark clouds were moving quickly as we started our descent

It seemed like a monster was following us, trying to overtake...the wind was picking up and the temperature dropping.

it rained so hard and the wind blew so ferociously, we had to pull over and  wait it out.  it almost looks like a white-out condition snow storm doesn't it?  You can just make out the white line on the side of the road.

The storm let up a bit and we followed another car's tail lights down the mesa.  By the time we got to the bottom and onto route 191, the sun had started to come out and the temps. began to climb again.
We picked up a peach tart for dessert and then decided to see if we could find the petroglyphs that were supposed to be nearby...What a great find for us.