Slickrock and Shadow

The Tabernacle:  a panorama from the top of this monument! From left to right the formations are Cape Final, Jupiter Temple, Venus Temple, Apollo Temple, Unkar Delta (the Colorado River), South Rim, Solomon Temple.   J.P., our hiking trip leader, a seasoned veteran of the Colorado River, said he hadn't done the Tabernacle hike in many years.  He'd done it just once before, maybe 10 years earlier.  With our Hatch hiking-focused rafting trip, he wanted to attempt this pinnacle again.  We got the talk the night before:  2,200 feet elevation gain and then loss, no water, hard, no shade. "Some people might want to skip this one and stay at the boat," he said to the group, "especially if you found some of the other hikes difficult." J.P. pointing to the tiny peak in the middle of the photo:  that's the Tabernacle.  This is 1/3 the way up the trail already. We started at the river at a nice sandy beach.  We'd return to this beach ...

Colonnade Arch shows 3 of its 5 holes Colonnade arch fascinated me from the moment I first saw it in a photograph.  I had never seen anything like it:  3 windows opening out over an infinite view of canyons and mazes.  It took a little while to figure out exactly where this arch is located.  It appeared promising enough to me that I decided to special detour into the San Rafael Desert on my way to Canyonlands' Needles District just to visit this spot. I began hiking early in the morning and was deceived by the landscape as well as other trails in the area.  I hiked down towards the edge of the cliff and did not find my destination.  Looking around in all directions, I found it high on a cliff above and to the east.  I hiked back up and up and up.  You must be above this arch and then descend to it.  This can only be reached by downclimbing from above.  The problem is that you can't see if you're in the right place.  As a resu...