going going gone: October 2010

Today the 29^th Friday, we left Kanap Arizona on our way to Monument Valley which is in Arizona and Utah, as you all know it has magnificent monoliths jutting out of the desert, it’s not quite what I expected I might have some other place in my head (thought it was more colourful and more mesas, can any out there let me know of this place I am thinking of) I was a little disappointed because of this , but Lee wasn’t .

We took the drive down on the valley floor and stopped at a lookout to take some photos; we had a good laugh with one of the Indian traders, he had us in stitches reciting Aussie terms such as ‘Crikey’, ‘stone the crows’ very funny, it’s one of those things where you had to be there. Bought a couple of pieces of so called authentic jewellery which they guaranteed that they made themselves...... every stand has exactly the same stuff, probably manufactured in China. It’s still pretty nice.

We are changing our plans again, we were going to go to Colorado next to a place called Mesa Verde, but we have decided to go further north into Utah and visit the Arches National Park, which as the name suggests has arches. Looks pretty spectacular, after that we will cross into Colorado and head down towards Mesa Verde and probably stop on the way at the Sand Dunes National Park.

Entering Monument Valley

Monument Valley which is in both Utah and Arizona

Lee and the convoy

Heading further north into Utah the landscape is always changing and amazing us

This is in a town called Mexican Hat, which is pretty easy to see why.

Today we had a late start but went to the Antelope Caves just outside of Page AZ, our guide was a Navaho Indian woman, what a great and magical place. The photos I have taken are pretty good and I had a lot of trouble selecting just a few, the colours in the canyon don’t appear this colourful to the naked eye, the canyon is called a slot canyon because of how narrow it is, the water has cut through for millions of years, at the moment the sand that is in there is about 10 feet higher than normal, the floor rises and lowers with flash floods, the canyon whcih is more like a cave would be about 80 feet high. 11 people were killed in the canyon some time ago in a flash flood in 1997.

Later in the day we went to the Lake Powell National Park. At the moment we are on the border of Arizona and Utah.

Tomorrow which is Wed? We are heading to Utah to see Zion and Bryce Canyon we weren’t going to go there, just straight to Monument Valley, but we spoke to a couple of people and they said that we shouldn’t miss them, it’s not too far out of our way and from what we have seen so far with the landscape it can only be fantastic. The weather has improved, but apparently it has been snowing in Bryce NP I don’t know how we will handle , we may need chains on the vehicles.

Antelope Canyon Utah

Lake Powell in Arizona

More Antelope Canyon Utah about 80 feet tall

I think I took about 250 photos of Antelope canyon on the way in, to look at it with the naked eye the colours aren’t this intense, a bit tricky to get the settings on the camera and the lighting just right.

this is a Wahweep Hoodoo (which means Bitter Springs in Navaho) are formed through errosion over time.

landscape in Arizona

these hills look like you could eat them chocolate and cream

Lee at the bottom of one of the toadstools

Me being a toadstool

Lots of would be toadstools in the making.

the amazing forms of the rocks

Entering Zion

Me and Lee in Zion

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All above were in or around Zion Canyon NP

Sorry that the blog hasn't been daily, but a lot of the van parks that we are staying at have very poor reception.

Think its Thursday,(yes it is) 28^th none of our clocks are correct and moving from state to state it changes, nice and sunny but cool. Yesterday we went to The Toad Stools, weird looking formations on the way to Kanab, then onto Zion National Park, different to Grand Canyon where you’re at the top looking down, at Zion your at the bottom looking up, the scenery into the canyon was unusual and spectacular, pinks, oranges whites etc, and the rocks were swirly and checkerd in texture. Inside the canyon we went on a few walks, spectacular views all around. We went into a little town at the edge of the park called Springdale to get fuel, it was pretty late so we couldn’t stop, it looked nice. Today we are going to some more caves on the way to Bryce Canyon, it will be pretty cold up there as the elevation is around 8000 feet, we will leave the bus in Kanab as we have to come back that way on the way to Monument Valley, which is the one that I want to see most of all.

Today we were on our way to Bryce Canyon, and went through Red Canyon, what a beautiful sight, honestly the photos don’t do it justice at all, we would say about 30% in photos compared to being there, it was beautiful.

On to Bryce, INCREDIBLE so different from the Grand Canyon which is awesome, and Zion beautiful from the bottom looking up. The best was Bryce being both awesome and pretty, Grand was the most spectacular, I we had to rate them they would all be 100%

Kanab in Utah, which is the town that we are staying in for the moment is called ‘Little Hollywood’ as it has been used for over 300 movies locations in its time. All the way from 1924 ‘Deadwood Coach’ to Planet of the Apes 2001. Also Broken Arrow with John Travolta and Maverick with Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson .

We also went to a cave called Moqui which is owned by a woman, her husband’s grandfather was a polygamist and a Mormon who had 6 wives, 55 children and 8000 descendants, they have just had a book published on the history of the family.

We also found a car yard that had some of the most beautiful vintage cars one a 1957 thunderbird.

Tomorrow we head off towards Monument Valley