Holy cow! UTAH!

As if I hadn’t seen enough striking beauty, I entered Utah.  I had seen a photo by my friend Craig Sowder of a canyon he had visited, so I wanted to see it in person.  Well, it takes more than a half hour off the highway just to get to the official Canyonlands National Park, which was FREE!  Why?  Because I’m “old!”

But the drive in was perhaps more beautiful than the portion of the park that I could visit from that entrance.  There’s a whole other entrance that would have taken way to long to get to and I had to get to Salt Lake City to spend the night.  I think that’s probably where Craig took his photo, so I still didn’t get to the right place.  But I was NOT disappointed.

Again, I don’t have time to edit all the pics, so if the colors don’t seem vivid, it’s the camera’s fault, because these were amazingly vivid.  Be sure you click on all the video links.  They’re pretty amazing.  The only music that seemed appropriate to listen to as I was viewing this grandeur was Il Divo, so you’ll hear it in some of the videos.

These amazing views went on for 45-50 miles!  And you have to exit the same way you come in, so you get entirely different views on the way out!

 Canyonland Videos

Video 1

Amazing Grace — taken by dash-mounted iPhone, so it’s a little distorted, but still my favorite.

Salt Lake City

After Canyonlands, I headed to my next AirBnB location in Salt Lake City.  Ron was an amazing host with an amazing hillside home that overlooked the city.  I had my own wing downstairs.

On the road to Salt Lake City:

My accommodations for the night.  Views from the balcony at night and morning:

 The Mormon Temple Square was beautiful!

It was impeccable!

Their State Capitol looks amazing lit up at night:

And it’s a really nice city!  Lovely outdoor mall downtown with underground parking, lots of places to sit outside at restaurants, etc., and very good transportation system.

The Salt Flats:  Went on for miles as far as the eye could see!  When I got back in my car I could taste it on my lips.

The salt flats