After a short stop at the Beehives we all decided a short drive around the park would be nice to kind of give us an idea of places we wanted to further explore. We ended up driving by the 7 sisters, which are 7 big separate rock formations all grouped together, and then went to what the park calls the “cabins.” These were built by the very early park ranger pioneers and were where the rangers lived and entertained guests. Kind of like a very early visitors center so to speak. From there we went to the entrance of the park to see Elephant rock, and then drove through the rest of the park into a different valley. I loved the other valley and the amazing colors and geological formations all over. So cool!
These next few pictures are some of the 7 sisters.
This place was called lone rock due to that big boulder in the lower left hand corner. It was a lone picnic spot but had nice shade due to the big boulder.
These next few pictures are of the cabins of the early settlers/rangers.
I got out of the car to get a few closer up shots and inside of the cabins.
Each cabin had one fireplace, a window and a door.
This next picture is of Elephant Rock. Its really hard to see but if you look in the middle of the picture you will see a larger rock with three or four humps and blue sky behind it. The first hump on the left (again in the middle formation) is the Elephants head with a long trunk that goes behind a rock (the trunk is actually an arch which is super cool). Then the second hump (in the middle of the rock) is the elephants leg and goes down to the ground. It is long and skinny as well like the trunk. There is a hole behind the leg as well if that helps. Do you see it? The rest of the rock is the rest of the elephant.
After seeing Elephant rock we then headed into another part of the park which was in another valley. I loved how the red rock and white rock are right next to each other. So pretty!
The different colors of the valley were amazing. See the darker purple colored mountains in the far distance? And then the red rocks in front of that? And then the orange and white rocks? I loved the rainbow of colors everywhere!
We ended up driving all the way to the end of the road which took us to a place called White Domes. The kids didn’t want to hike at this point but Adam and I were able to come back here later and hike around in them. They were my favorite! Pictures to come later.
