Our Rock Tour continued with a day at Canyonland National Park. And even though the sky wasn’t as bright and blue as I would have liked, and we kept our hats and gloves close at all times, it was a wonderful day. What a beautiful park, with lots to see and do! Hiking, biking, off-road vehicle exploring, tubing, rock climbing, you name it, if it’s an outdoor sport, you can probably find someway to do it here at Canyonland. We only had a day so we opted for a couple of short hikes, driving the park’s scenic roads and finishing the day off with an incredible 4 wheel drive!
Some of the beautiful vistas from our day -





Then there was the Shafer Trail – our 4×4 adventure!


Yep, that’s the road!
I kept telling myself, this road was made for uranium trucks, this road was made for uranium trucks, this road was made for uranium trucks. And then I prayed that no one was coming UP the road.


Ooooo – and the views as we decended into the canyon floor were amazing!



That’s the Colorado River meandering through the canyon.

And that’s the other half of the “meander”.

Everywhere we looked there were more stunning rock formations.
And more beautiful views.



This body of water is part of a potash mine - it was a beautiful blue, quite unlike the red/brown color of the Colorado!

And of course, along with all of the wonderful rocks, I was also busy zoning in on any spot of color I could find. I love spring and all of the wildflowers in bloom!

We were going to try to get to Arches National Park today too, but the dirt road adventure was a bit longer than we expected so we’ve moved Arches to tomorrow. Better get rested up – so many rocks, so little time!

That would be two days for the post of one!
Wednesday -
From our parking spot in Blanding, UT, we were able to check out Natural Bridges National Monument and the Valley of the Gods. Oh, and a couple of adventures in between!
But first, our early morning treat -
The full moon setting in the southwest sky -

It was way early, and I have no idea what made me look out the bedroom window, but I’m certainly glad I did!
But on to the day…..
As is often the case in this journey of ours, the drive getting to the “destination” is filled with interesting and unusual sights.

On Tuesday the rocks that we saw (Monument Valley) were tall and angular. This morning they looked like a mound of dough getting ready to be shaped into a loaf of bread!

Our first stop on Wednesday was Natural Bridges National Monument-
One of the nice things about a “National Monument” as opposed to a “National Park” is (usually anyway) that they are a nice manageable size. Natural Bridges had a lovely scenic drive that took us past the three beautiful examples of natural bridges.

Each bridge had a short hike to the canyon floor, but I only did the last one (which is why the “close-up” shot is actually close up, and not just zoomed in!). It was a pretty hike, and I’m glad I made the trip!

From there we were headed to the Valley of the Gods, a scenic drive through the high desert that is similar to Monument Valley. But to get there we had to go down the Moki Dugway. And before we got there, we had to go by the Muley Point - long dirt road to, well, Muley Point! Just the ticket!
We finally saw some of those “Open Range Cattle” that we keep seeing signs for -

This one stared at us as we drove by -


“Whaddya doin’ on my road?”
We weren’t certain what we would find when we got to the end of the road, but were delighted with the view. It was crazy windy that day so I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but wow – it was quite a sight!


And on the way back –

Can you see our friend waiting to see if we’re really leaving?
OK – the Moki Dugway


So that’s the road – and Muley Point is the mesa just behind the road mesa. (Does that make any sense?)
It was a great drive – not nearly as nerve-racking as some we’ve been on, but lots of fun! And that led us to the Valley of the Gods.

It was very similar to Monument Valley and it was free, so that was another bonus. Here’s a summary of our drive -







They sure know how to “do rocks” around here!
Thursday -
Our destination for today was Moab – gateway to both Canyonland National Park and Arches National Park. As we set out we were pretty sure that the snow was going to stay up in the mountains,

but by the time we hit the next town up the road, we knew we were in for a very interesting day – both weather-wise and also scenery-wise!

As we approached the entrance to the Needles section of the Canyonlands NP, it was at least slowing down.

But as we headed down the 34 mile entrance road (we left Lizzie at the turn off), we weren’t so sure that it wasn’t going to be a long drive for not much view.

But things definitely began to look up as we closed in on the park -

And as the skies began to clear….







See what I mean? And we hadn’t even entered the park yet!



There was hardly any snow once we got to the park lands, but the vistas continued to amaze us!


But as you can see, the blue sky was fast disappearing.


Yep, that’s Gary, heading back to the car to, you know, wait for me.

These are the Needles Formations, which this section of the park is named for. I think it looks like a city skyline. Very cool.

Oh, look! A challenging 4 Wheel drive road. Uh-oh.
Nope, we turned around and headed back. I guess between the fact that it was beginning to snow again and it was a pretty technical road (and gave you that impression right from the start), Gary decided that this wasn’t the day for that kind of adventure. Phew, I said in my heart!
The clouds did continue to roll in,

and by the time we got the truck hooked back up to Lizzie and were back on the road, the snow was back in full force.

Blue sky peaked out before we pulled into Moab

and even though it was cold, it was nice to get set-up without the weather complicating the process.
Tomorrow we head into the Island in the Sky section of Canyonland, and then hopefully over to Arches. We’ll see just how the day goes!
And so the Rock Tour continues!

Before I continue with more “pictures of rocks”, I need to share a little something about Gary.
He turns 60 today.
Many of you know Gary – you know what a hard worker he is, what a good job he did taking care of his family, and I’m sure you know how much he has loved these last five plus years that we have been on the road. But maybe you don’t know this about Gary.
He has become an expert at waiting.

At Death Valley while I find just the right spot for that perfect picture.

In Sedona as I climbed up to the cathedral view. (Don’t know why the hood is up!)

At one of the small lakes in Prescott, AZ – as I checked out the shoreline.

All bundled up waiting for the bus that wasn’t going to get us to the Grand Canyon rim for the sunrise.

Or passing the time while I wait for the sun to set.

Maybe he’s waiting for me to finish exploring some Hopi ruin.
It’s true that sometimes he walks on ahead, knowing that I’ll catch up once I figure out how to get that pretty flower into the picture.

I don’t have any pictures of him waiting for me at various quilt shops around this big country, but he’s done it time and time again.
And always with a smile.
I think it has something to do with those verses in 1 Corinthians -
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Happy birthday, dear husband of mine. Thanks of waiting for me, and watching out for me, and putting up with my horrible sense of direction (along with just a couple of other idiosyncrasies) and for loving me even when I’m less than lovable.

And today, on his birthday, he even did the laundry.
He’s quite the guy, isn’t he?

We set out with just the truck to explore the Navajo National Monument in NW Arizona. This monument preserves three intact cliff dwellings – although we only hiked out to one. And really, we didn’t actually hike to the dwellings. We hiked to the view of the dwellings. Apparently they only have guided tours to the actual ruins on the weekends, and when we saw where they were, we realized that we probably wouldn’t have taken thathike anyway. (Again, it’s the bad knees going down and the asthma (and general stamina) coming back up. We just know our limits.) But the 1 mile hike to the overlook was very lovely, and the view of the dwellings excellent (even though they looked like doll houses!)

See that alcove in the rocks? Where all the shade is?

This little community was built into that alcove they estimate about 800 years ago. Amazing! And what’s more amazing, they estimate that it was only lived in for about a generation. Like 30-40 years. My goodness, what a lot of work for such a short time. And I wonder why they moved on?

This is a view of the entire valley from the pathway to the viewing point. At least they had a room with a view!

After we returned to fetch Lizzie we set out “for real”, heading north into Utah. But first, we stopped at the magnificient Monument Valley. This isn’t a National Park, but a Navajo Tribal Park – a first for us. It was actually very similar to a National Park – visitor center, scenic road, gift shop, and tours, but it was different in that there are Native Americans that actually live within the park, and at many of the pull-outs there were vendors selling Navajo jewelry and art.

I’m so glad we did this park – it was spectacular!
Even the drive there was beautiful -

But once inside the park – my, oh, my…




Along with the jewelry/art vendors there were also a couple of spots where you could hire a guide to see the monuments on horseback. Or, you could just have your picture taken on a horse.

More scenery….






And a final panorama -

(Sorry if that seemed like a lot of pictures – but if you had seen how many I actually took, you’d be proud of me for whittling them down to these!)

The rest of the day was spent on the road. But what a beautiful road that was!


(catch the 6% grade sign? Keep your eye on those signs!)


Oh, yeah, at the bottom of that last 10% hill – was this curve -

But we made it – down those hills, and back up some others!

But ah, the beauty along the way!

That little formation was just outside the town of Mexican Hat. Get it? Mexican Hat!

And those mountains are actually called the Navajo Blanket Formation. How appropriate!

The good new here is that we arrived at a lovely campground in Blanding, Utah before we came to those snow capped mountains!

After we got settled in, and had a nice home-cooked dinner (no, really, I cooked!), we were treated to this wonderful end-of-day blessing.

God is so good to us!

We pulled out of our campground at the Grand Canyon on Monday morning, but there was still plenty to see in the GC. Since we were heading out the East Entrance there were still plenty of overlooks to take our breath away!



We stopped at the Watchtower at the east end of the park. Although this tower looks like it’s been around for hundreds or years, it was built in 1932 by Fred Harvey in the early days of the park. There is a lot of information about the Native Americans that lived in the canyon, but it really started out as just a tourist gimmick.

And the guys repointing the stone are definately NOT historic!
By the time we left the park we felt that with the exception of not doing any hiking IN the canyon, we really had “done” the Grand Canyon. What a great 2 1/2 days!
We took a little detour (leaving Lizzie in a friendly visitor center parking lot) south toward Flagstaff to check out a couple of other National Monuments.
Sunset Crater -
This was a pretty recent volcano (like 800 years ago), and it was interesting just driving through the lava and ash fields.



The loop road that drove through the crater area took us right into
Wupatki National Monument where I enjoyed exploring some very well preserved pueblos.

Gary opted not to take the walk to the ruins, but cheered me on from his vantage point!

We covered a fair bit of road on Monday (counting our little side trip) – and as always, the scenery was as varied as it was beautiful!




That little community held our parking spot for the night – the back lot of a Burger King – and our fist glimps of Monument Valley – our major stop for Tuesday.
Stay tuned……