Travelling to Williams AZ over the dessert from Page

We set off after breakfast down towards the vermillion cliffs and onwards over the desert towards Williams. The land is very arid and light coloured hillocks of sand for many miles.

We eventually reached a Navajo trading post. It was a huge enterprise with masses of goods for sale. Coaches and cars everywhere as people make this their break of journey.

Nearing Williams the land becomes more green and trees everywhere. They must have had forests fires recently as loads of burnt stumps over large areas. 

At Williams as was planned, we visited bearizona. It is a drive through safari sort of idea. 

Caribou wolves bison bears burros ( wild donkeys) were in different areas. At the park you can also walk around to see young bears, porcupine, beavers, arctic wolves, bobcats, arctic foxes deer etc we spent 3 hours there so much to enjoy .(I took 295 images of the animals so feel lucky how few of these I’ve put in my blog!)

We drove through the town next. Williams is where you can catch the train to the grand canyon and as it’s on route 66 it’s very popular. We found our hotel, it’s at the end of town away from the noise, but an easy walk into town to the shops and cafes

We plan to go to the Grand Canyon all tomorrow. So excited!

hope you enjoy these animals….

We hare having a lovely time today revisiting spots we saw 9 years ago. We went to see the Vermillion Cliffs below Page town and saw the Navajo women selling their wares. Then onto the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado river.

I make no excuses for all my photos of these 2 bridges,( the foot bridge and its parallel road bridge). They are so iconic and historical.

Next stop was along to Lee Ferry where you can paddle in the Colorado on the sandy river bank. Here boats set off to journey through the Grand Canyon.

Back to Page for salad bowl lunch at Subway and gigantic cold diet coke. Again we have reached 100*f

In the afternoon we explored the Lake Powell and sat in the shade watching the boats.

last night we caught the sunset and the full moon rising over the lake so beautiful….

The last three are down at the lee ferry crossing.

Another very hot day again and for us a long travelling day. We set off at 9am and arrived at Page by Lake Powell at 5.30pm.( this is now 4.30pm as the clocks change as you cross the border to AZ).

Our first stop was at Moab at our favourite coffee shop…the caffeine to keep us awake!

The journey was quite easy and as the morning progressed we stopped to photo a huge wind made arch Wilsons arch, by the side of the road. you can see how big it is by the size of the girl who has climbed up there

We are in Navajo land all the way, and we stopped at Bluff for our lunch. The best part was the blueberry cheese cake mmmm. The Navajo people are so polite and friendly we have found. The restaurant was situated by two pillars on red rock formations. We passed many such formations all the way to Mexican Hat,where the rock outcrop does look so much like a Mexican with his hat on.

We then came towards Monument Valley and saw many people on the road and in the middle of the traffic; having their photo taken where Forrest Gump stopped his run on the film. of course we had to stop there off the road in safety.

I hope you like my photos of the outskirts of Monument Valley. We are planning to visit here at the end of our Mann tours and go properly into the valley then.

We next crossed a huge plateau and finally reached Page near Lake Powell. From our hotel room we have a balcony and we can just about see (or imagine we see) the lake! We are both tired and very pleased we have air conditioning here as its baking hot outside.

Moab and Canyonlands

Today is our last day in Utah until October!

We traveled to Moab to buy essential foods fruit and healthy snacks and then found a mountain chocolate coffee shop.(We had called there yesterday for coffee and ice cream ) once stocked up we set off for our adventure.

9 years ago when we were last at the arches np area we couldn’t find Canyonlands national park . We had gone down by goblin valley road to find it and gave up.

This time we knew where to go and were not disappointed…..

Again we found ourselves looking thousands of feet down to the river Colorado and also down to Green river 

Down below us these 2 great rivers converge, making the Colorado river even more mighty. We could see how canyons are created by the rivers floods and frost and rainwater. Elevation 5800feet above sea level 

It was cooler again today between 75 to 80*f so I’m happier at that temp

Back to the hotel for a swim and then to our cafe across the road by the green river. No storms today and good……….    no sand storms!

Goblin Valley state park

Slightly cooler!

We traveled along the San Rafael desert today to find Goblin Valley State Park.

The sat nav was not helpful 

A storm was approaching and the Skies darkened.

We walked through the goblin forms that are sandstone hoodoos

The thunder rumbled all around us and large spots of raindrops now and then. The temperature dropped to84*f, then came the lightening. We retreated to the safety of our car and drove on to the nearest town of Hanksville.The last 6 pics are of capitol reef NP

From Hanksville we drove a little way into Capitol Reef National Park. This is very different terrain and covers many square miles

As a sandstorm was whipping up and visibility was poor we returned to green river.

Its a good thing we did as the warm wind was so fierce and the sand hurt my eyes. We could not even see the cliffs nearby at times. We sat in the cafe across the road and watched the wind on the river and the poor little humming birds trying to reach the feeders.

Now its thundering …..Time to relax and catch up with our plans xx

Today we went to Arches NP in the morning. It was 100*f and very very hot. We tried a couple of trails as much as we had stamina for in the heat, I hope you like these photos. the first 6 are Arches , the rest are Dead horse point.

Then we went along the road to Dead Horse Point State Park. It was a continuation of Arches at the start but then the rock forms changed and onto green sandy meadows.

At dead horse corral (where wild horses were selected by cowboys and the rest left to die) ,we found a scene similar to the Grand canyon. The river Colorado had made deep tracts into the rock formations revealing millions of years back in their formation. We looked down on hundreds of feet depth down to the meandering river, very mind blowing.

Back at the hotel we did our washing, ate out across the road by the river watching humming birds feeding.

It has been a very hot day in the desert!

Arches national park on the way to green river 

We soon came into desert vegetation. The road was a long straight freeway (dual carriageway) very easy to go along. This is dinosaur land. We stopped for a rest at grand junction.

Grand junction is a vast city. The land is flat and all the shops and industrial areas have masses of land each place.

We were heading to Utah state 

Over the border we stopped at … springs and took these views in of the huge desert and the huge skies overhead. (We walked up on top of a small hill in the  heat 88*f)next stop Arches np

ARCHES N P

By now the heat was 100*f and windy like walking with a hairdryer instantly on you.

This is the second time we have been here and again it is extraordinary like as if you are on mars . Red rocks towering above and forms shapes all balanced and unreal

Every time we parked at a viewpoint there was so many views to photograph. Here are a few. We managed one arch. The others you reach by trail and it’s too hot to walk today. Maybe tomorrow…

There is so much else to see in this area of Moab now at Green River.

We have just had a huge american sized salad followed by american cheesecake,,,yummy!

Exploring the countryside of Colorado

So today is our last day at Montrose. We had a lazy viewing the rockies day….

We decided to go south again to Ridgway and explore the high meadow land above

At ridgway we found a community coffee bookshop with homemade cookies. We chatted to some ladies who apologized for the weather. (Rain and thunderstorms last night again ) but we said this is good and warm for us. 

At the top of the pass we took many photos of the red and coloured mountainsides and the wild flowers. There are walks all over this area.

We stopped at priests lake

Where some people were fishing and paddle boarding

Then explored the ski villages but not impressed. So hit the sights again 

Back to Montrose we picked up a salad bowl and came back to hotel.

These are the mountain passes we scarily maneuvered yesterday!

Montrose to mesa verde 

This location at Montrose was our only chance to see the mesa verde and to travel through the red mountain pass. It is a 3 hour drive there. We were excited to go although not sure how easy it would be .

There are state parks and national forest parks all along until we reached a ski resort of Ridgeway. (1 hour)

Now we started to climb… up to a headway with such pretty views, then as we climbed we found stretching meadows lakes and near tops of mountains 

Ominous clouds developed at the top was lizard pass meadows and pine forests large and flat. So many wild flowers and streams. The sheep mountain elevation is 13000 and we seemed close to the top there. There are 3 mountains over 14000 feet. (We were high up but roads seemed safe except one part where half road had slipped down mountains and was being repaired. … one way traffic and road builders in charge of thoroughfares )

San Juan national forest covered the way down and the road following San Miguel river. (Another hour had passed and we just lapped up the beauty )

We started descending 

Rico was an old mining area and rundown old mines and houses everywhere was shut except gas station 

Next came lower camping fishing horseriding country and Cortez 

At last we had reached mesa verde national park 

It is so majestic towering above the landscape. The road winds around and up  with viewing places. I’ll let my photos speak for themselves sites we saw. It is unforgettable 

By now it was 3.30pm as we descended and decided to take a longer but easier route back or do we thought!

We headed for Durango and Silverton. The idea was this was an easier option then on to our hotel back through ridgeway.BOY WERE WE WRONG!

The red mountains pass was the scariest road vince has ever driven on and lots of hair pin bends and no crash barriers. The scenery and rocks were unbelievable. All colours red green yellow. Rockies at its most spectacular 

We survived.

What a brilliant day xxx

I’ll upload photos tomorrow as I ate chillies by mistake and am a little ill😩

Black canyon of the Gunnison

We are now staying in montrose colorado

Last night there was a terrific thunderstorm but we were safely watching it from our hotel.

This morning we only traveled 10 miles to the black canyon. 

It is a national park and so we bought an annual pass to allow us to go in all the other national parks

The rocks of the black canyon are dating to 1.7 billion years. The cliff walls are 40 feet apart at the river and rise 1750feet to the rim. Not good here if heights scare you! All I can say is it was so impressive and don’t think my photos will show the great depths we were seeing.

We saw birds of prey, crows and chipmunks.

we drove all around the rim stopping at all the viewing parts. Hope you like my photos.

We came back early to have a rest as yesterday was a long travelling day.