A mandible-jarring mountain bike ride...

for about 5.5 miles, followed by a one mile bushwhack through piñon pine and yucca, gets me close to the end of Adobe Mesa (click images to enlarge):

Here's the view from the very northwestern tippy-tip of the high mesa (elevation about 7,000 ft) showing Castleton Tower and the bucolic community of Castle Valley.  My place is to the left (west) of the large circular irrigated field:

A telephoto shot across the top of the spire shows the collapsed salt-cored anticline in the center of Arches National Park with densely-jointed sandstone on the eastern flank:

The view to the east takes in the expansive Richardson Amphitheater with the Colorado River:

And here's the view to the south, toward the La Sal Mountains, as I turn around after eating lunch and begin the arduous trek off the mesa (there's 800 ft of elevation gain on uphill grades of ball bearing-like gravel to get back to my vehicle):

Lastly, at sunset on this fine day, here's the view of the shadow cast by Castleton Tower as it slowly creeps across the northern end of Adobe Mesa (the images above were taken from the tip of the slender fin in the upper-right):

In sum:  It was a great day!