You ought to give Iowa a try

Before our latest cross-country trip we had never spent time in Iowa. We didn't know what we'd see, except the Andy Goldsworthy sculptures near Grinnell and in Des Moines. I assumed in my ignorance that Iowa would be flat. It's not. And the rolling hills were lush with corn in mid-September, making for lovely landscapes.

Iowa cornfield

Iowa cornfield 2

We also visited the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, which preserves tallgrass prairie, oak savanna and sedge meadows. It too was very beautiful, and we enjoyed their educational center as well (did you know that some prairie grasses have roots 12 feet deep?). Wild sawtooth sunflowers combined with grasses and other wild plants to form a lovely mosaic. They use fire, seeding and, in one 700 acre enclosure, bison to reconstruct and preserve the prairie ecosystem. Very cool.

Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Bryce Canyon National Park

Our national parks are treasures. Each has unique and awe-inspiring features. So I hesitate to call any particular park "most photogenic", but Bryce Canyon certainly would make the short list. We were fortunate to spend two nights in the park (Susan reserved one of the last rooms months before we traveled) which enabled us to see more of its moods. Lovely weather prevailed before dawn and beyond.

Predawn, Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon sunrise

The park is known for its hoodoos, the vaguely person-shaped formations that result from weathering and erosion of rocks rich in calcium carbonate. The park experiences 200 days a year when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above. All those freeze-thaw cycles contribute to the erosion.

Bryce Canyon hoodoos

Hoodoos

Our only "bad" weather was a rainstorm that conveniently occurred during our dinner in the lodge restaurant. The next morning brought a view of a sparkling stream in the bottom of the canyon and stronger scents of pine at the top.

Stream in Bryce Canyon

The canyon rim is above 8,000 feet, giving spectacular views of the canyon and the rugged Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument beyond.

View from Bryce Canyon rim

Three Arches

If rocks are the bones of Mother Earth, then we've seen a glimpse of her ribs. Arches National Park in Utah has more than two thousand arches, and we saw only a few during our single day there. The massive sandstones of the region were uplifted and fractured into vertical "fins" like the one Susan is about to hike up (look closely to see two other hikers near the top; hikes in this area aren't recommended for those "uncomfortable with heights". It was a little bit scary).

Sandstone Fins, Arches National Park

After the fins were exposed, erosion carved them into many shapes, including arches. The largest we saw was Landscape Arch, which suffered a large rockfall in 1991. These monumental forms are only temporary.

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park

Other arches aren't as large or graceful, but are still intriguing.

Pine Tree Arch, Arches National Park

And Arches Park is not the only place with them. We hiked to this one in Capitol Reef National Park, also in Utah. It's a strong sandstone above a more-easily eroded stratum, now gone.

Hickman Bridge, Capitol Reef National Park