Friday, October 23, 2009

Hiking ATCs


This month's ATC theme is "A Hiking We Will Go". As usual, I had to ponder for weeks about what I wanted to do for this trade. I settled on cutting pictures of places that my family and I have gone hiking this summer. We spent a lot of time wandering the state and gazing at sandstone rock.

This first cut is of Goblin Valley State Park. This is my kids favorite place to hike around in. It feels like an alien landscape as you wander around the strangely formed rocks. The middle ground of the picture is a photo of Goblin Valley that I found in the park's brochure, I felt that it helped to give the feeling of the valley.

This second cut is of Hickman's Bridge in Capitol Reef National Park. This was the first year that we have taken the time to hike any of the trails in this national park.

The third cut is of the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. The family hiked to the arch early in the morning in July. It was a relatively easy hike, but we were glad that we didn't try to hike over the slickrock in the heat of the middle of the day. We passed people starting out on the trail on our way back, and we could see them beginning to sweat. It wasn't even 10 o'clock in the morning yet.

Last of all is Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. As a family, we hike the easy trails in Zion, but there is no way that I am taking my young children on the hike up to the top of Angel's Landing. The thought of my kids near those 800 foot or more drops is enough to give me nightmares. Zion is one of our favorite national parks, and we try to get there every year.

2 comments:

Harmony said...

Beautiful. I like the Delicate Arch best. I was just thinking the other day that I'd like to go to Goblin Valley. There is so much of Utah I haven't explored yet, even though I've lived here a good part of my life.

Snippety Gibbet said...

Wonderful ATCs!!!!!!!!!! I love Arches NP. And the hike to Delicate Arch will be forever ingrained in m brain. (I was sure my overly adventurous boyfriend was going to slide down the sloping sides of the big hole next to the arch.)