Another Fabulous Foto Friday

La Sal Mountains Utah
The date is May 2010. We are off roading below the rim at Canyonlands National Park. Second day of our Utah adventure. It snowed on our way up which gave the La Sal Mountains in the distance the tremendous cap of deep snow. We are in summer weather gear on the canyon rims.

But the interesting part of this photo for me was how close that mountain looks. We are approximately 15 miles outside of Moab at this point. And the La Sal Mountains begin 20 miles the other side of Moab, but the air is so clear the sandstone tower looks like an immediate neighbor to Mount Tukuhnikivatz  - 12,482 feet (3805 m) and little Tuk to the left. Mount Tukuhnikivatz is obviously big Tuk.

Mount Peale, the tallest in the range, reaches 12,721 feet (3,877 m) above sea level. The range contains three clusters of peaks separated by passes. The peaks span a distance of about 18 miles (25 km). The name of the range dates to Spanish times, when the Sierra La Sal (meaning the "Salt Mountains") were a prominent landmark on the Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, which if you look at a map is a bit out of the way but it avoided crossing the Grand and Glen Canyons on the Colorado River. Moab, Utah was where the trail crossed the Colorado and skirted around the bad lands of the Colorado Plateau. In this picture the Colorado river is tucked out of sight in the winding canyon at the foot of the tower.

BTW, the Colorado River has water in it at this point. Lots of water. Phoenix does not suck it all out to below Lake Mead.

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