Canyonlands National Park, Utah

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Everyone knows about the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in Arizona. Less well known is that the Colorado and Green Rivers have carved wide and scenic canyons in the area where they come together in southern Utah. Canyonlands National Park protects those canyons and the land surrounding them.

In Arches National Park, we looked up at the rock formations, but here in Canyonlands, we looked down. And yes, that's Judy standing near the edge to get photographs!

In the canyons of both the Green River and the Colorado River, a resistant layer called the White Rim Sandstone forms a bench below the mesa where we stood but above the flats through which the rivers meander.

The Colorado River has left striking white-topped curtains and flattened spires in an area called Monument Basin.

(This panorama was made from three photos). An unusual feature within Canyonlands is known as the "Upheaval Dome." It is a circular depression a mile wide, suggestive of a meteor crater. Another theory is that it was formed above a salt dome. Geologists are still debating which theory is correct.

Near Canyonlands, we had this closer view of the Colorado River at Deadhorse Point State Park.