The Great 2008 Southwestern Road Trip - II

By the next morning I could see alright and my hearing had returned to normal. I left Cortez in the morning fog, but there were definite signs that it would be a beautiful day when the fog burned off.

 

I took US160 and headed for the Four Corners to see if the local scenery could sustain it as a tourist attraction or whether the fact that four state boundaries merged on the spot was the sole draw. It turned out that the latter was the case, though there is a US Geological Survey marker on the spot if you need a photograph to remind you that you were there. Thirty-some miles west of there I turned north again on US191 and reentered Utah from the south. The picture above was taken in that borderland area and shows that the day made good on its promise of beautiful weather.

 

This picture was taken approaching Natural Bridges National Monument in southwestern Utah. Driving out here is a pleasure, if for no other reason than you have the roads virtually to yourself. Free to enjoy the scenery, different vistas still seem to sneak up on you, keeping you in a constant state of surprise.

 

This one, looking southeast from the highway near Mexican Hat, shows the caprock south of Mokee Dugway. Utah 261 heads south from Natural Bridges like any other two-lane highway in the area then, in the space of a mile or so, turns into a gravel road and comes to the edge of the caprock. The elevation is 6425' and, if you choose to continue, you soon find yourself at the bottom of a series of switchbacks 1100' lower and on flat ground again.

 

This is the northern approach to Monument Valley on the Utah/Arizona border - you know, John Ford, the Duke, "Rio Grande", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" - that Monument Valley. US163 is pretty, but to get the full effect of the Valley you need to get off on some of the tracks and search for "that perfect view".

 

This is a view looking west across part of the Wahweap Marina on Lake Powell, above the Glen Canyon dam and Page, Arizona. That's Castle Rock across the water. My November 19, 2009 post shows the Marina and Castle Rock from a higher elevation late in the day and it describes the cut across the peninsula to the right of Castle Rock. My post on the 20th shows a panorama view from that same overlook.

 

This is a section of the sandstone basin containing Lake Powell taken from a cruise boat one beautiful afternoon. The lake, which extends 185 miles up the Colorado River, has a longer coastline than California. Every time you turn a corner you're rewarded with a surprise and, at the end of the day, you're thinking it really would have been nice to have a geologist with you to explain how all this came about.