Moab – LaSal Mountain Loop and Castle Valley

The second day of our stay in Moab brought us much different terrain and views than the desert from the first day.  Today, we explored east of Moab – the LaSal Mountains that sort of butt up to Moab.  We did finish off with more desert like terrain in Castle Valley. 

Fall in the Mountains

Fall was most definitely in the air in the mountains off Moab.  Altho the golden aspens generally provide the most color, in this image you can see that other colors were peeking out as well!

Fall Bright

And, here is one of those aspens I mentioned, in full glory along the side of the road!  The other fall colors make a nice backdrop on the other side of the country road we were driving down.

Autumn Landscape

And, to think, we weren’t even at the full glory of the fall colors!  Yes, fall does come earlier in the mountains, but I think the peak of the colors is still a week or so away.

Winding Road

Every so often, it’s nice to stop and think about where you’ve been.  This was definitely one of those times when looking back brought as much joy and beauty as we had driving thru it the first time!

Peek of Winter

The fall colors are so brilliant, it would be easy to miss the peek of winter on the mountaintop off to the left in this image.  That little sliver of white promises what is to come.  The folks in Moab said the mountains had the first snowfall just shortly before we arrived.  Brrrr!

Castle Valley View

As we began our descent out of the lower mountains, there was one instance where we had the best of both worlds – the autumn colors of the mountains in the foreground, and the rich red rust colors of the bluffs and monoliths in Castle Valley below.

Color on the Mountainside

I decided to include this image because of the sense of scale I got from it.  It sort of looks like there’s autumn color ground cover growing on the mountains in the background.  But, truly, that color is from various trees and bushes, not ground cover!  Sometimes, you can forget how large mountains are when you’re driving in them!

Traffic in the Road

This just goes to show you, that you can run into a traffic jam no matter where you are!  These cattle seemed to feel that traveling down the center of the road was the exact perfect place to be, and heck with the humans in their vehicles!  After all, they live here, and we’re just visiting!

Giving Us the Eye

Most of the cattle moved over to the side of the road, very politely.  However, there’s always one in every crowd, and this one steer just seemed to want to dare us to make her move.  We were polite, but firm, in our quest to move on, and she eventually decided to give ground to us!  What a character!

Castle Valley Landscape

As we descended toward the valley floor, we left the autumn colors behind, and truly began to once again, embrace the rich red color of Utah in this area.

Erosion at the Base

One thing that we found interesting was how the limestone that these bluff and monoliths are made of, erodes.  If you look closely, at the base, you can see the erosion that has taken place due to the rains that fall periodically.  I’m not certain how many hundreds or thousands of years will pass, but eventually this column will tumble to the earth. But, we’ll certainly enjoy it while it’s standing!

Enjoy!