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Waking up to another Blue bird day, we headed to Page, AZ. This was another long travel day. As we left the Moab area, the topography changed markedly. The cliffs and buttes gave way to immense prairies and rolling hills, with the mountains far off in the distance. Lots of cattle ranching in this area. After miles of this scenery, we finally approached Monument Valley. This is an Apache Tribal park, and displays a first hand look at one of the most tremendous natural structures created by erosion. The absorbant sandstone holds underground aquifers which give moisture to crops and adequate grazing for livestock. The Navajo reservation covers one third of the 130,000 square mile Colorado plateau. After checking out the visitor's center and talking to the photo-op Indian at the overlook, we headed out for ... read more

Woke up early to another gorgeous day. Mornings have been in the low 60's for the past few days, then warming up to the mid 80's. There is almost 0% humidity in these parts, and were usually above 5000' above sea level, so everyone is drinking water like a camel. We're signed up for a private tour of both parks today, Aches and Canyon Land, and we arrived at Nav-Tec tours at 8:00. After meeting our guide for the day, Yancey, we took off in a Toyota Land Rover that felt like a tank. As we discovered later, it was good that it was built like a tank. Instead of heading into Arches NP through the main entrance, Yancey took us north, and entered the park via a dirt road. This quickly turned into a "technical" ... read more

Okay.....I know it sounds repetitive, but it's another beautiful day here. Woke up this morning to the sounds of a rooster crowing, and a cow mooing. Our cabins were adjacent to a farm with many animals. It was different from what we are used to, but nice. Actually Tropic is a real farm community, and we found out that all of the local businesses close for the Winter. After breakfast we headed down Highway 12, another scenic road, towards Capital Reef NP. The highway did not disappoint with its breathtaking scenery. Rt12 is not the shortest way to get to Capital Reef, but it's certainly the most scenic. It follows the few rivers and streams out here, and you're surrounded by high cliffs frequently. Eventually it all changed to green farmland and green mountains. In fact, ... read more

After a great nights sleep and a delicious breakfast we headed out to explore Zion, NP. The town of Springdale, in partnership with the park, have a wonderful free shuttle service with stops throughout the town and to the park. Once in the park there is another shuttle service that stops at all of the various trails and scenic areas. This was begun to cut down on the number of vehicles that had previously crowded the park, and to cut down on the pollution caused by them. We decided on the advice of one of the park rangers to ride to the shuttles' last stop, and work our way back. The scenery here is just beautiful. The various shades of red, white and browns, along with the steep slopes through the canyon were breathtaking. Our first ... read more