To read the previous part click here - Gray mantle of fog...
We left Canyonlands and drove a couple of dozen miles to Arches.
Another place where the weather and centuries created a nature
masterpiece. Time carved the figures and arches from the dark red rocks
and today thousands of people are coming here to see it. This time we were there in a very interesting moment... Unimaginable time
when the red and white created something different. Magical and
mystical, attractive and magnificent...
But before we got
there we had some peculiar experiences because of the weather. The
road dove to the fog and surfaced back all the time. Mostly we had some
sense of direction, but often just hoped the road brings us there and we
don't get lost...
Driving through deep foggo-snow is not like your daily commute to
work. You are swimming in the frothed milk most of the time and
sometimes finding something on the side of the road - a tree, a hill, a
small town... and this "something" appears from nowhere and disappears after a second vanishing in the thin air...
I was looking through the windshield covered with drops of water, when
the mountain wall appeared on the left... And there was a guard watching
the valley. Probably it was just my imagination, you tell me... Can you
see the figure on the wall? Or it was just me dreaming...
The view of the hills stepping from the milky fog made me think
about their age... These hills are not just old... They are very old...
Millions of years they are staying there and watching around. Watching
and laughing at us, small and short-living creatures trying to run so
fast to capture something... They know, all you need to do is to stay
and wait... And everything passes by...
Once we reached the park we drove through the huge gates and
stopped at the hills of the... hm... mountains? Yes, a small mountain
(or huge, if you compare it to the cars parked at its feet).
Park Avenue was on the left. Skyscrapers were really scraping the
sky and we couldn't see the top of the rocks hidden in the clouds... We
all have been here before but everything looked not as we remembered it.
Everything looked so different and unknown. Absolutely unbelievable and
beautiful!
But when I turned around I saw a completely different view -
snowless valley, powdered with a thin layer of sugar and everything was
red-ish there... Red rocks and red soil... red-brown grass and small bushes of the same color, pretending to be rocks. Probably I was imagining things, but in fact we
all were. We were dreaming when we were walking and saw something that
wasn't here. Didn't I tell you we found ourselves in a fairytale that
day ;)
We returned on the road and drove very slowly. The fog, the ice, poor visibility and quietness... We saw a 45 mph speed limit sign and laughed - we were doing 30 and felt that was too fast and 45 looked like a mockery.
But because of the slowness, we (we, meaning all of us but the driver) had time to enjoy
looking around and imagining things. Here we all agreed it was a Great
Chinese Wall (or at least a small piece of it) ;)
And here are three girls gossiping about the weather I guess...
Some wanderers lost in the fog...
What can you make from this picture? Turn on your imagination and you can find something!
Fog and slow falling snow made everything look so different from what
we expected. But no complaints. In fact we all loved what we saw.
The mountains were poking through the fog but the tops were
dissolving and the clouds (or fog? or snow?). We were reaching the
farthest viewpoint in the park...
Arches Park is one of the most beautiful places in Utah. It is
beautiful in Summer when the red rocks come in combination with green
grass and leaves. But we had no idea how magnificent it looked in
Winter, when the red combined with white. Especially when the white is
not covering the red, but puts a veil on it...
Can you see the arch in the picture? Right, just in the middle. By
the way, there was another arch in the previous picture too, and I bet
you missed it. Right? Don't you worry, makes two of us ;) I missed it too and found it only
later, when I looked at the picture and had a closer and better look...
Snowy pines look lovely, don't they?
Finally we reached the last stop and got out of the car.
I cannot describe what we felt at this moment. Complete serenity,
incredible quietness and indefinite calmness... The snow was slowly
falling down covering everything around... Just look at it and try to
feel it. Don't you want to stay there forever? We wanted to. Not for
long, actually, once the cold was getting to our limbs we changed our
mind ;)
We hiked a little bit between two tall cliffs and wanted to go
further but changed our mind. First it was cold... Second, we still
needed to go back... And most importantly we were afraid to get lost in
this white silence... So we turned and slowly walked to the car.
We climbed into the car and unhurriedly drove back, hoping to see something else that day...
We stopped again for a short while at the Windows, but didn't hike
there. Too much snow, not enough time and we already made up our mind
and decided to drive back to Denver so we had a good 8-10 hours through
the mountains in front of us.
I guess we were very lucky to be there at the right time. Right
time, because we were able to see something gorgeous and also rare.
Right, we didn't get to Bryce Canyon as we wanted, but we saw something
so beautiful we forgot about our initial destination. Can you believe we
never mentioned Bryce on our way back. We were so full of the
impression of Utah under the snow so everything else just slipped out of
mind and felt unimportant. I still think this trip was one of the best
we ever had. We were so fortunate the weather was so bad and made everything so delicate and just marvelous...
Interesting to know where we found ourselves next day? Click here Snow road from here to Cripple Creek
Pictures were taken on March 20, 2010.
Great trip!
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