Santa Ynez Valley

Santa Ynez Valley
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Thursday, May 5, 2016

Arches - Part 2

A couple of days after our previous visit, we again visited Arches National Park.  On this visit we drove north out of the park by way of the dirt Salt Valley Road.


La Sal Mountains







Delicate Arch was a very popular destination.



Paintbrush




Sunflower



Unidentified flowering shrub



After leaving the park, we spotted this Pronghorn.



Cattle playing in the mud



Asters



Sego Lily



North of Arches, the road passed through an area with an amazingly dense bloom of Globemallow.





Arches - Part 1

We are spending a few days in the Moab, Utah area.  On our first afternoon here, we took a drive to visit Arches National Park.



Balanced Rock



La Sal Mountains in the background











Pale Evening Primrose



Yellow Cryptanth



Globemallow



Pepperweed


Sunday, May 1, 2016

San Rafael Swell and Rock Art

We spent a couple of nights in the town of Green River, Utah, so we could revisit some favorite sites in the San Rafael Swell. The San Rafael Swell is a geological structure that has caused a 30 mile long wall of rock in central Utah.




The first place we revisited was the prehistoric pictograph site in Black Dragon Canyon.







Utah Penstemon



Roughseed Cryptantha



Pretty Buckwheat



Next we drove to the Head of Sinbad 
 pictograph site.








Fremont's Barberry



On to revisit Dutchman's Arch





White-tailed Antelope Squirrel



Rabbit



Driving back towards Green River, we stopped at an overlook where I-70 bisects the San Rafael Swell.




Snow in Torrey, Utah

We spent a few nights in the town of Torrey, Utah, which is just a few miles west of Capitol Reef National Park.  Even though Torrey is at an elevation of about 6,800 feet, we didn't expect to be caught in a snow fall in late April.







Some of the flower buds hadn't even had a chance to open.


The view from our dinette.