Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: San Juan County

Wilson Arch - known as Wilson's Window for decades by the locals, renamed by the government - is a sandstone arch with a span of 28 meters and height of 14 meters. We visited there on our way to Moab and made a stop along route 191. Through a short, but steep climb we reached the impressive arch, where we enjoyed the wonderful view. From an information sign: Wilson Arch was named after Joe Wilson, a local pioneer who had a cabin nearby in Dry Valley. This formation is known as Entrada Sandstone. Over time superficial cracks, joints, and folds of these layers were saturated with water. Ice formed in the fissures, melted under extreme desert heat, and winds cleaned out the loose particles. A series of free-standing fins remained. Wind and water attacked these fins until, in some, cementing material gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. Many damaged fins collapsed like the one to the right of Wilson Arch. Others, with the right degree of hardness survived despite their missing middles like Wilson Arch. It is against federal regulations to intentionally or wantonly destroy, deface or remove any natural feature or plant.

Dead Horse Point State Park is a small, yet one of Utah’s most spectacular state parks. It is best known for its magnificent views of the Colorado River, which finds its way more than 600 meters beneath the lookout around a rocky plateau with one large gooseneck. Further away lies the fascinating landscape of Canyonlands NP with vertical pinnacles and buttes. Millions of years of geologic activity created this spectacular area. Deposition of sediments by ancient oceans, freshwater lakes, streams and wind blown sand dunes created the rock layers of canyon country. The state park owes its name from an old story. In one place is the rocky plateau less than 30 meters wide, so the part further away as a kind of peninsula. In the past wild horses were driven to this point by cowboys, after which the narrow neck of the land was fenced off. The best horses were tamed, the other horses were usually released. According to an old legend, it happened once that the horses trapped on the rocky plateau were left to their fate; the animals died because of a lack of water.

Goosenecks State Park lies northwest of Mexican Hat, where the San Juan River flows through a couple of bends in a deep canyon. The landscape is similar to the Horseshoe Bend (Page - Arizona), although personally I found Goosenecks more impressive because it has more bends. For visitors Goosenecks State Park is ‘only’ a viewpoint for spectacular views over the river. There are no trails and/or access to the river. The San Juan River meanders – about 300 meters below the viewpoint - through the landscape in a number of large bends, covering a linear distance of about 2 kilometers, but the real distance is no less than 9 kilometres. The bends are popularly called “goosenecks”. Goosenecks is considered being one of the most striking examples of a river meander on the North American continent. Various geological activity have contributed to the creation of this landscape. About 300 million years ago, the rock was pushed up by movements in the earth's crust. In addition, folds in the earth caused the river to carve out the enormous bends. Water, wind and frost erosion further shaped the landscape. (For this panorama I had to stitch a couple of images together.)

The landscape of Valley of the Gods - located just north of Mexican Hat - is a scenice backcountry area, which is more or less similar to that of the much more famous Monument Valley, which lies about 30 miles to the south. Valley of the Gods is also home to magnificent buttes and towering pinnacles scattered in an empty and vast desert landscape. The sandstone valley is accessed - free admission - by a 17 mile long dirt road. During our visit the road was very easy to ride in the beginning, but at the end were some rocky parts. Unlike Monument Valley we didn’t see almost no other tourists. Main picture: Valley of the Gods seen from the Moki Dugway PiP’s: panorama and rock formations of Valley of the Gods