After brekky we drove back out to Jacob Lake & down Hwy 89A to connect up again with the Hwy 89 coming from Flagstaff/Cameron. Up a big climb through a deep red rock cutting with walls towering on each side - & we go through to Page for fuel & groceries - went to our first WalMart!
Still in Arizona. Backtracked a couple of kms to Horseshoe Bend which a photograper had told us about this mornng at the North Rim. Had to walk up a big sand dune & then down to the lip of the canyon (1.1 kms one way in baking heat 86 deg F) but the views of the Colorado River doing a 270 degree turn around a rocky outcrop, like a huge emerald python - 300 m down below - were amazing.
The scale of everything here is ENORMOUS.
Turn on to Hwy 98. Still big mesas, desert, lovely green, grey, brown, red colours. The desert grasses are of different shades of green & occasionally there's a clump of pretty flowers - some pink, some white, some red, some yellow.
200 kms to go. Joe Cocker on one radio channel; switch to the dulcet tones of Mandy (who remembers THAT song?!); another channel you can get analysts talking the stock market non-stop: jargon like "the stock is going parabolic (or it's tanked!)"), "use your retirement funds & buy silver". Roadside stops with local Navajo people selling silver, jewelley, pottery, mats. Trailer towns scattered along the way - desolate.
Turned onto Highways 160 then 163, entering Utah for a short time, then once on Monument Valley Rd we are back into Arizona. Spectacular scenery. Giant rocky outcrops, red in colour & dramatic in size & shape.
We are staying at the View Hotel (thanks Syd & Sue for the heads-up on this one). Our room has a view that is AMAZING out over the desert & the mesas & the buttes. This is the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
It is about 87 deg F plus & we are not shifting from our balcony & air-conditioned room.
We have all the view you could possibly want & there's no need to go any further. We (well, I am; My Friend is sleeping ...) watching cars meander through the Park: dusty, rocky roads, hot sun. No thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment