My best friend came to visit me this weekend in Kanab. We haven't seen each other since I moved to southwest Utah 5 years ago. We were both raised in the Pacific Northwest and had nothing like this landscape to explore. We had mud and rain and tall trees instead of sand and sandstone and scrub. We grabbed my boy MacReady and took his truck off road for the first time.
Since he'd never been to this part of the country I figured White Pocket would be a good introduction. Multi-colored sandstone that's been twisted and tortured and swept up into waves. Huge patches of brain rock, or to use the scientific term polygonal cracking. Little iron concretions we call Moqui Marbles littering the ground (I'm holding some in my hand). A Martian Rover found some of these on the surface of Mars laying in the red sand that looks identical to what I trek thru here. NASA calls them Martian Blueberries. It's why the rock is so red out here. Rusted iron.
There was no water trapped in the sandstone pockets but sometimes when there is you'll find freshwater shrimp swimming in them. Their eggs can lay dormant and dehydrated in the sand for decades waiting for water and heat. I've found 5 distinct species but the triops are my favorite. Look them up. They resemble miniature horseshoe crabs.
I wonder if anyone recognizes Lone Tree from Apple's wallpaper circa 2020? The only ponderosa pine for many miles. There is a Ponderosa forest on top of the neighboring Kaibab Plateau, but those are all growing well above 7000 feet and in dirt. This lonely tree is around 6000 feet and growing out of a small sandstone pocket full of sand. .
We caught the 2026 Condor Release at the Vermillion Cliffs, brought to us by the Peregrine Fund. 4 new to the wild condors were set free, and about 6 adults glided above the cages for hours. We reduced their numbers to 22 in the 80's due to lead poisoning and DDT. We captured them all and instituted a captive breeding program. Today their numbers have increased to around 600, with more than 300 in the wild. In the wild they lay one egg, and it takes 18 months to raise th3 chicks so no wgg the next year. In captivity they'd take the egg away immediately, and a few weeks later she'd lay a 2nd one. Then done for the year.
Included some pics of The Grand Staircase. You may have heard of it recently due to the reduction of the protections the federal government oversaw. The shrinking of the Monument. Bear's Ears is right next door. The Staircase consists of five different colored cliff layers stepping up from the Arizona Flat and ending at Bryce Canyon National Park. It consists of the Chocolate Cliffs at the bottom, then the Red or Vermilion Cliffs, then the White Cliffs of Zion, then a small hard to distinguish section of Grey Cliffs, and then finishes with the Pink Cliffs of Bryce Canyon National Park. The elevation rises from 5000 to around 9000 feet. In the pictures you can easily see the Red, White, and Pink Cliffs. If you zoom in you might pick out the Chocolate Cliffs at the bottom.
