Eye of the Whale Arch...

was the primary objective of a 20 mile ride today on Willow Springs Road, one of the back roads into Arches National Park. It was the second ride by my neighbor, BH, on his new eMTB, a RadRover 6, the successor to my RadRover 5. It was big fun and he was ecstatic.

View through the Eye of the Whale.

View towards Balanced Rock, The Windows and the high La Sal Mountains from Willow Springs Road.

Balanced Rock.

RadRover 6 (left) and RadRover 5 (right) at the unattended back door entry station to the park.

Seven Mile Canyon...

north of Moab, Utah was the location of a walkabout today in order to examine petroglyphs with local rock art expert Rory Tyler.

“Supplication Panel” detail.

Local rock art whisperer Rory Tyler and a bighorn sheep petroglyph.

Here’s a link to Rory’s new website, under development: moabrockart.org

The snow drought is over...

in southern Utah, with nearly six inches (15 cm) falling this morning in Castle Valley. The National Weather Service forecast for this location: “Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.”

24 Feb 2022 UPDATE: The day after the winter storm, where another inch of snow fell overnight in the valley. Clear and cold now.

The La Sal Mountains gained between 14 to 23 inches (35 to 58 cm) of snow in the last 72 hour-long winter storm. The snow water equivalent graph shown here is for the mid-elevation SNOTEL site, now at 89% of normal. (Click on image to enlarge.)

A nice hand specimen...

of a trachyte porphyry from the La Sal Mountain laccolith (Eocene) showing euhedral orthoclase phenocrysts 1-4 cm long.

The dark phenocryst in the center of the image shows clear zoning. The groundmass consists of orthoclase with minor plagioclase, biotite, hornblende and augite.

History is being made...

at Boca Chica, Texas, also known as Starbase, where SpaceX has stacked the largest and most powerful rocket for an orbital test launch in the coming months. The booster and Starship seen here is taller than the Saturn V that heaved Apollo to the Moon, with more than twice the thrust and 100-150 tons of payload capacity. WOW.

Image credit: NASASpaceflight.com (click on image to enlarge).

Elon Musk is determined to make humans a multi-planetary species, and this is the launch system that will take us to the Moon and Mars. Learn more about Starship here.

Aerial bullies...

chase a soaring raptor overhead this afternoon. This Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is being abused by several pesky Western Ravens (Corvus corax sinuatus) in the images below.

'Tis the season...

for mass wasting events in the canyons. A local resident shares the image below, taken last night on UT 128, about a mile north of Dewey Bridge. It’s the geology of now!

Image credit: Cathy Sherwood.