Monument Valley, Arches and Provo Utah

May 29th we left Page AZ  headed to Monument Valley AZ.  This stop was on Mark's bucket list as he is a big John Wayne fan.  There isn't much in the area and some of the campgrounds charge $50 for dry camping, so we stayed at Gouldings Monument Valley Campground for $62 which had full hookups.  Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pay especially when your in an isolated area.  That being said it was a very nice park.

It wasn't a long drive from Page so we got settled and went to the valley.  

The valley is a red-sand desert region on the Arizona-Utah border and is known for it's towering sandstone buttes.  Monument Valley Navajo Tribal park was a frequent location for western movies with the first one being Stagecoach starring John Wayne.  It is a self guided tour that is 17 miles through the park with stop off viewing points.

The west and east mitten butte where there has been some car commercials shot way up top!

The Three Sisters resemble three Catholic nuns dressed in habits.

Elephant Butte.

John Ford's Point is named for the first Hollywood film director to use the Monument Valley location for a film set.

Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. 

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Next we were headed to Mancos CO to visit our friends Kate and Roger who bought some land there.

But first we had to stop at Four Corners.

Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

On the way to Mancos a big truck passed me kicking up a rock and hitting my windshield.  Damn, this will be the second windshield in two years!!!

At least it isn't a spider crack and we can wait until we get back home.  Anyway, we spent the weekend with our friends.  They just bought the land and the water was being hooked up and the driveway going in.  Good to see them again and we know we always have a spot in Mancos CO.

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On June 4th we arrived in Moab UT and stayed at Ken's Lake Campground just south of town.  

Nice campground with big spots but it's dry camping, now we know we were a month to late to be dry camping but we survived.

The next day we headed to Arches National Park.  This park has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world, there are over 2,000 documented sandstone arches.  

Most of the arches you can get to with just a short walk.  

North Window and South Window, taking photos of the arches can be challenging depending on the time of day and how the sunlight hits them.  We started out early in the morning due to the temperatures.

This is Turret Arch and if you look closely you can see me in the middle bottom, gives you some perspective as to how large they can be.

Double Arch is the third largest in the park.

Balanced Rock

The three gossips on the left and the organ on the right.

By this time it was mid afternoon and getting hot so we took a drive along the Colorado River on 128 Scenic Byway to the Red Cliffs Lodge.

Colorado River

Many movies have been filmed here including Rio Grande and the lodge maintains the Moab Movie Museum which is free and tells the rich history of movie making in the area.

The next morning we headed out early again and went directly to Devils Garden as this area fills up quick.  

Landscape arch is the 3rd largest in the world with a 306 foot span.

Can't remember the rest of the names of the arches but I think you get the idea.

Sand Dune Arch

We really enjoyed our time here and would definitely come back.  When we do it will be in the evening as sunset is pretty special along with the stars. 

This national park needs to be on everyone's bucket list. 

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We left Moab and headed to the Elks Lodge in Provo Utah and got the last spot available!  Full hookups located right in town and not 20 minutes later another rig showed up.  After dry camping in 96 degree weather we needed some power, sorry for the other folks but glad we got there when we did.

Mark's cousins son, Taylor Ward, plays baseball for the Utah Bees which is a minor league.  He got us tickets to watch him play, it was a fun evening and I happy to report that he just got picked up by the majors and will be playing for the Angels in LA.

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We went into Salt Lake City to the Temple Square which is 35 acres of beautiful buildings and gardens owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We met some nice folks in Moab that setup a tour for us.  The architecture and gardens are breathtaking.  

The bottom right picture is the organ in the tabernacle, it has 11,623 pipes and is the 12th largest in the world!

The other pictures including the next one are from the conference center which is huge!!!  The auditorium can hold 21,000 people and is the largest in the world and doesn't have any visible support columns.  The building is three floors and the top has 6 acres that are landscaped with trees and pants plus a nice view of the city.  The temple took 40 years to complete, you can't go in but the visitors center has a model showing you what it looks like inside.

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Hwy 189 is a beautiful drive along the the scenic Provo canyon where you will come across Bridal Veil Falls.

We drove a little further into Heber and came across Varr Airstreams Restore and Repair.  We have never seen so many in one location.  This company does a wonderful job bringing the silver bullets back to life.  If you have always wanted one I would definitely contact this company.

We enjoyed our time in this location, bowling, walking downtown and Mark even won a corn-hole tournament at this friendly lodge.

On the 17th of June we moved to the Elks Lodge in Rupert ID.

It was only for one night but what a welcome change at 66 degrees and light rain with humidity of 56.  We opened the windows letting the moisture flow through the rig and you could almost hear the woodwork soaking it up as everything had been so dry.

The next day we moved onto the Elks Lodge in Caldwell ID.

From there we headed to Oregon.

Thanks for following our travels.  

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Page AZ, Antelope Canyon

On the 24th of May we pulled out of Wickenburg AZ headed to the Elks Lodge in Page AZ.  Red rocks along the drive after Flagstaff and you won't know you were in AZ.

$20 a night for electric and water, there is a free dump within a mile.  We stayed over Memorial weekend and were surprised it didn't fill up,  friendly lodge and close to everything.

We hiked part of the Page Rimview trail that is a 9.8 loop and has great views of the River, it was a nice find so close to the city.

Next up was the Glen Canyon Dam. 

It is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River standing 710 feet high and was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S.  The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir, Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse the Colorado's Grand Canyon by boat.

This is the view of the bridge from the east side.

Looking north from the bridge.

Looking down from the bridge.

Looking south from the bridge, such a beautiful color!

This was taken from a view point further south of the bridge.

Lake Powell taken along Lakeshore Drive in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Beneath the lake lie hundreds of ancestral Puebloan dwellings.

Did you know the Colorado River and its tributaries feed much of the water needs for seven states

Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, California, Arizona, and New Mexico.  The river should flow to the Gulf of California but is often used up before reaching the gulf.

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Before Glen Canyon Dam blocked the river above Lees Ferry, all Grand Canyon river trips either began here or stopped here on their downstream run.  For those starting upstream, Lees Ferry was a rest and repair stop, supply point, or in some cases a place of decision as to continue on or stay put.  The settlement was named after John D. Lee, a Mormon settler with 17 wives who established a ferry there in 1871.  The ferry provided the only crossing of the river for nearly 60 years until the Navajo bridge was built a few miles downstream.  

Many of the rafting trips to the Grand Canyon start here and are booked 1.5 years in advance.

On the way to Lees Ferry we past this Balanced Rock.  

The Navajo Bridge is a pair of steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River at a height of 466'.  It was built in 1928 but was never intended to carry the heavy vehicles of today so another one was constructed to duplicate the first one.  It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.  The original bridge is now for site seers.

I can't take credit for this picture.

But I did take the next two from both directions, the water is such a beautiful color.

This next picture is of the Vermilion Cliffs taken from the bridge.

Past the Navajo bridge on 89A is a settlement of Cliff Dwellers from the past with remains of a few adobe buildings nestled among crumbling rocks and oddly shaped boulders.  They used what nature provided by building around boulders.  

Horsebend is best photographed in the morning or the evening.  It was a bit cloudy when we went but after a .75 mile hike the clouds broke.   The overlook is 1,000 feet above the river.

There are no guardrails to keep you from falling so pay attention!

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The highlight of Page was Antelope Slot Canyon. 

 A slot canyon is a narrow canyon, formed by the wear of water rushing through rock.  The slot canyons are on Navajo land so you have to schedule a tour, I didn't know that but should have, dah!  So I couldn't get us into the upper or lower canyon, but was told at the information center in town that Canyon X is still part of Antelope Canyon just not as famous.  No problem getting tickets and they were cheaper as well.  Our tour guide use to work at upper canyon and told us that due to the volume of people and their schedule you are rushed through.  That's not the case at Canyon X, we were allowed to take our time and the tour guide even took pictures of us.  Another interesting fact was our time to visit.  Later in the rainy season the canyons will fill up with water bringing unwanted guests such as snakes.  Also, during the heat of the summer 4 legged creatures will seek the cool temps the canyons provide, so before the tours begin in the mornings the canyons are checked out before they allow anyone to tour. 

This is a must see, I just love all the texture and colors, nature is amazing!

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Thanks for following our travels.