Day 27 & Day 28

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Day 27:

Expecting a long hot boring day of straight lining to cross Nevada, we were surprised to get something a lot better. We had plotted the shortest distance route to get us to today’s destination of Page in Arizona & were pleasantly surprised to quickly be on wide sweeping gravel roads through the Ute (Navajo) Indian reservation. For the first hour after our 6.30am departure it was very cold (8 degrees) as we crossed this reservation through stunning rock formations, shallow ravines amongst scrubby desert and great views.

As we neared the end of this section through the reservation the temperature had climbed a few degrees & shortly after being chased by a pack of wild rabid dogs (probably domesticated looking for some morning sport) & avoiding wild mustangs we came upon an old fort. Thick rock walls & double thickness wooden doors indicated it was once a dangerous outpost, but as there was no signed information we were none the wiser.

Back on seal we arrived at a trading post at Four Corners (so named as it is a region of the United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico) we were informed by the friendly Trading Post proprietor we shouldn’t miss “Monument Valley” which is all natural rock formations but could easily haven been designed by a tourist marketing guru. One of the best we saw was a Rock Mexican Hat perched on a plinth 100s of metres high. This was just outside the small town of ..…..you guessed it - Mexican Hat! We stopped at a small café recommended by the Four Corners proprietor where we had brunch, morning tea or lunch – who knows what & we were served by a really helpful young Indian guy who gave us all the gen as to which way to go & where the Police were speed patrolling. (a bit irrelevant in our case on 400cc motorcycles)

Seal all the way from here (the boring bit) into the middle of nowhere town of Page which seemed to have every large motel chain represented as well as all the fast food outlets you could imagine. Started life in 1957 when the hydro electric power station & Glen Canyon dam were built & has grown ever since to the current 7500 permanent inhabitants.

Afternoon thunderstorms finished off our day of 385kms.

Day 28:

After viewing the hydro-electric Glen Canyon dam in Page we headed for our destination of Las Vegas. Nothing too exciting today just 100s of kms of seal across desert like country with a background of soaring red cliffs. After our 1^st stop in a small town for a McDonald’s breakfast we pressed on as the heat built & the time zones changed from Arizona to Utah to Nevada which was all a bit confusing.

160kms out from Las Vegas we turned onto on a busy 75mph freeway with a lot of traffic – especially trucks. This was pretty hot & monotonous with temperature reaching the low to mid 40s depending on whose thermometer you checked. 50 miles out we stopped for lunch & a cool off in an air-conditioned restaurant. Continuing into Las Vegas we encountered heavy motorway traffic for the last 45 minutes & a bit of confusion over GPS directions to our hotel. Eventually arriving in a 41 degree Las Vegas afternoon, we were into the pool as soon as checked in.



417 hot kms today but now 2 days to see the sights of Vegas.

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[D MJ Binkley]

Arizona wilderness
Artsy photo.