Springtime Greenery & Landscape

 

I was pleasantly surprised at the greenery up on the Colorado Plateau around Moab, UT.  FYI - it's called the Colorado Plateau because the Colorado River runs thru the plateau.  Take a look -

 

The prickle pear cactus were still in bloom (some of them) and I was lucky enough to find a good perspective to capture them and the buttes on the plateau!

 

There's something about the rust/terra cotta of the earth here and greenery that just reaches out and grabs me.

 

At first we passed this tree and I thought I missed my opportunity.  But, then, we ran into (believe it or not) some road construction, and I was able to back track and capture this.  I love the way the tree sort of reaches out to the landscape.  (Just to clarify - technically, we were in Canyonlands National Park, and they were doing the road construction.  We were delayed for an hour, but we were in no hurry, so we didn't care.)

 

Enjoy!!

Musselman Arch

 

Utah's state motto is "Life Elevated" - and that was certainly true when we visited Musselman Arch on the White Rim Road near Moab!  Usually, I've approached arches from below them.  For this one, tho, we approach from the top of it and are able to actually walk out on it - cool and weird!

 

Here's Jeff goofing off on the arch.  The actual arch is the "band" that seems to cut across the image.  The rest is background with a LOT of air between the arch and the ground!

 

Jeff is definitely Miki's "main human", so where goes Jeff, so goes Miki!  Here are the two of them sharing a hand/paw shake atop the arch!

 

 

You don't usually see images of me on this blog, but this is one of only a few.  When you have the chance to walk out on an arch, how can you not take it?  I couldn't resist!  Jeff snapped this shot of me with his handy phone camera and it, too, gives you an idea of how wide the span is.

 

 

 

There are a couple of interesting things about this image - the first is to give you an idea of how wide the arch is - really, it was about 6 feet wide.  The other thing is that it helps you to get an idea of the topography.  We are at one level, and in the distance, you can see buttes much higher than we are and......

 

....looking down from the arch, you can see that we are at a level much higher than another level!  The fall would have been at least a couple of hundred feet, I'm guessing.  Certainly enough to kill you!  It gave me much more sympathy/empathy for those afraid of heights.  It certainly reminded me of my fear of falling/jumping from high places, with or without a parachute!

 

I also thought of my all time favorite quote - 

"Life is a daring adventure....or it is nothing."

(Helen Keller)

 

Enjoy your life's daring adventures!