Crazy Rock Formations! Put Me on a Pedestal

I'm the Rockhopper. There's something way off in the distance there that looks like it could be a slot canyon and some really crazy rock formations. Should we check it out? I thought you might think so. All right, let's do it. Ah, this is a bit weird, and I think this place is okay, even if it is a bit windy. Let's see if we can get a little closer in the car first, and then we'll start hiking. We're getting closer in here and getting closer to those mountains, so we'll park soon here and take off and explore. You want hard rock? You got it. This place really rocks. This stuff behind me, this is called slick rock, and you can see why they call it that, because it is pretty slick looking, smooth, and when it rains, it definitely gets slick. Although, it is abrasive like sandpaper, and you can grip it pretty well. When you start walking on it, you can see that it's sandstone, probably equivalent from about 60 to 100 grit sandpaper, and within this slick rock up in the higher parts, you can often find things like hoodoos, arches, and other rock formations. Tracks in the sand. I'm going to say these probably were from a lizard. See that green foliage down in the lower left? That's where I think there might be potential for a slot canyon. Maybe Baby Bunny there knows the way. Do you know the way, Baby Bunny? Go straight ahead. Thank you, Baby Bunny. But first, we have to go through the thickets of tamarisk. Tamarisk is a non-native invasive plant, and it has become quite the pest in this part of the country, infiltrating streambeds, riverbeds, and all sorts of things. And I think it originally came from Israel or thereabouts. There's our lizard greeter doing push-ups for me. How goes it, Mr. Lizard? Another fine day in the desert. See you later, alligator. Who you calling an alligator? I'm a lizard, dammit! I mean, yeah, alligator, that's right. I'm an alligator. Don't you forget it, buddy. I'm fierce. I'll bite your leg off. If they made a movie about Bruce Lee going hiking, they might call it Enter the Canyon. This is looking pretty impressive. Not bad at all. Well, that didn't go too far, did it? Kind of an echo in here. Hello? And somebody has found a nice little camp spot here. Little fire ring there. This would be a nice place to camp. And that's it. That is the end of this little canyon. That is one big fat whiptail lizard right there. Digging in the leaves. Leading the way for us. I guess maybe he's looking for insects that come out when he digs through the leaves. Yeah, he's looking for breakfast. Well, now he just wants to lounge and get warm. Now he's hungry again. Well, he's just really digging away there. I guess he's just in a digging mode. Maybe he's looking for underground grubs or something. Dig on, little whiptail. Dig on. A very large whiptail lizard there. He's almost a foot long. It's time to find the crazy rocks. So, up we go. The higher we go, the better the view becomes. Down there, that's the canyon we were in. With the tree there. Now this one right here looks like it's gotten quite narrow. So let's have a look down in there. This is pretty steep. I don't know. I can make it down this. One of the things you've got to be careful with, with slot canyons, is if you get down something, you have to be cognizant if you can make it back out. It's like a mini slot canyon in through here. It's very narrow. Like a slot canyon in training. There's no way we can squeeze through that. That's not even more than a foot wide. Okay, back out. You don't want to get walled in. That's stuck. Be aware that these slot canyons are often so narrow, you can actually kind of chimney on out. Like I'm doing now. I'm starting to see some crazy rock forms in the distance. What do you think made the pockmarks in the rock? Wow, that's looking really steep ahead. I may have been better off going on the other side. I may have to go entirely around this mountain in order to get by and get to the crazy rocks. That's just way too steep. Unless you're a professional climber, Not gonna have to find a different route. Because you know, if you fall, that's it. You're in the bottom of that and you're not getting out. If you live. I'm gonna have to find another way. Get over or around the mountain. But hey, it's an adventure, right? And that's what you get with the rock hopper. What do you think of that? That's called a rock pedestal. I think we're gonna find more and bigger ones soon. I've come back in again above the little slot canyon. But it looks like I'm gonna get clipped out again. We'll have a look. I think there's a chance right up there. Of course, if you miss and fall down, it's game over. White the narrow chasm down there. Nice little touch of color there. Now that I'm on the other side of the slot canyon, I see some really cool stuff. Not far away. Come on, let's go. But first, we've got to climb up some of this slick rock here. What do you think of that? That's one heck of a rock pedestal there. But wait, there's more. Oh yeah, it's just ahead. Just look at that thing. How many thousands of years do you think it took for that to be created? Or how about this one? Look at the way that rock is balanced upon that sandstone pillar. It's like a rock pedestal wonderland. How do lizards walk upside down? You can get an idea of the size of this thing. Look at the way this one was sculpted. Look at those cuties. Looks like we've got a nest of flycatcher birds in the mushroom. And there's two little fledgling birds right there. Hey Pacific Northwest mushroom hunters, can you imagine having a morel mushroom this big? There's mama flycatcher bird. She's waiting for me to leave so she can go back up into the nest. So we won't hang out too long here. She's got food for the chickies in her beak right now. You know, from this angle, that looks like something other than a mushroom. I think I'll just let you figure that one out. The wind has really kicked in, so it's going to screw up my audio. So there'll be limited talking, I guess. I'll just say while I can that we're going into another little area here for a peek. Looks like there are a few more little pedestals forming. Not as dramatic as the other ones, but we'll have a look. Not bad, but it doesn't have the cap rock as pronounced as the others. That one out there is the tallest one so far, but it's really more of a pillar than a pedestal. A small pedestal forming there. That is the most precariously balanced rock. We've seen so far. And that is probably one of the most precariously balanced rocks. Another pedestal over there. And another one over there. There's that pillar from a different angle to the right. In the middle of the scene, can you see kind of like a face in that rock? If you know where this place is... Mum's the word. I prefer to keep places like this off the radar. There are plenty of idiots in the world. Yeah, those Boy Scout troop leaders in Utah that were pushing off the top rocks off those hoodoos in Goblin Valley State Park? I wouldn't have just fined you. I would have given you jail time if I had been the judge. Because you destroyed something that took thousands upon thousands of years for nature to create. I mean, after all, if you had spray painted the Mona Lisa, you would have got jail time for sure. Even better would have been if the rock had fallen back on one of the guys and killed him. That would have been instant karma. The way these pedestals are formed is that the harder rock above, the cap rock, erodes less quickly than the softer stone, the sandstone right here. And that's what creates these natural works of art. I hope you enjoyed roaming through the Pedestal Wonderland with me. If you're going to put me on a pedestal, make sure it's this kind. Until next time, this is a Rock Hopper. I'll see ya.