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.
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| 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.
Be sure to check out my jewelry.
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