An aerial tour of the Moab area...

was made with JC and former student DC in 2005.  We start with a look at the sandstone "Fins" on the east flank of the Salt Valley anticline in Arches National Park, north of the Devils Garden campground (click images to enlarge):

Flying south, here's a unique perspective of the iconic Delicate Arch standing in a wind-sculpted basin in the Entrada Sandstone:

The collapsed Salt Valley anticline in the center of Arches National Park contains the younger and bright green beds of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation near the trailhead to Delicate Arch:

The steeply dipping strata in the Cache Valley graben provide a dramatic backdrop above the Sorrel River Ranch on the Colorado River:

We turn southwestward and zoom past Castleton Tower with Castle Valley and the Porcupine Rim in the background:

The flight line across downtown Moab provides a view northwest along the axis of the Spanish Valley anticline:

Saline brines from deep solution mining in the Paradox Formation are evaporated in large ponds at Potash:

Further south, Monument Basin, Junction Butte and Grand View Point mark the southern edge of the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park, and those are the laccolithic Henry Mountains looming in the distance:

The early morning flight resulted in long shadows at the confluence between the Green and Colorado Rivers:

"The Grabens" in the Needles District are a result of the fracturing and sliding of the Cedar Mesa Sandstone above the Paradox Formation, as the Colorado River erodes Cataract Canyon:

"The Loop" meander bend in the Colorado River upstream of the confluence shows curvilinear fractures that parallel the sinuous channel, suggesting lateral unloading during down-cutting:

The prominent White Rim Sandstone is exposed by an incised meander on the Green River at Turk's Head, the small but prominent butte inside the loop:

And here's a different perspective of Upheaval Dome with the Green River in the background:

Finally, we cross the Moab Fault where it is exposed in Bartlett Wash, juxtaposing the Entrada Sandstone (Jurassic; right) against darker Cretaceous-age units (left), with the La Sal Mountains in the distant haze.