Mother Nature's marvels

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Where to begin! We have seen so many amazing and jaw-dropping sights in the last few days its mind-blowing. I'll start with the biggest of them all, The Grand Canyon. She is aptly named at 10 miles across and a mile deep. The colours and layers of stone that line the canyon walls, and the glimpse of the gleaming Colorado river winding its way along the bottom is breathtakingly beautiful. Its times like this that I wish I had a better camera, as the one I have just does not seem to capture it as well as I would like. It was great to see it on two different days, once in the afternoon, and in the morning the next day, as with the changes in the light, you see different colours. We travelled along the South Rim, stopping at different places to get another perspective. The last stop was at the Watchtower, built in 1935 and allows you to see a long length of the Canyon looking back towards the West and the desert plateau towards the east. But that was just the beginning of this long day driving through Arizona. We headed next towards Monument Valley, passing through yet more desert, canyons and dry gorges, all carved out over millions of years. With each vista, there were subtle differences such as the colours and shapes of the rocks, the vegetation or lack of that cover the ground. The higher the elevation, the more green you see. Anything over 6 to 7000 feet and you start to see scrabbly pine trees and the higher you climb, the more wooded it becomes. But mostly we were travelling through an elevation of between 3 and 5000 feet and that is just dry! It is typical of all those old Western movies. The tumbleweeds blowing across the highway and collected in great piles against fencelines, the falcons circling over the road kill carcasses of gophers and rabbits on the road, the dust eddys that turn into mini tornadoes that pull red dust high into the sky and which you can see for miles and the old corrals that you pass an indication that someone once tried, and some are still trying to make a life and a living in this arid place. We crested a hill on the highway and the red standing stone monoliths lay before us. They are a sight to see. The visitors centre at Monument Valley is operated by the Navajo Indians, so the National Park Pass was no good here. Still, we didn't mind paying the $10 to get in and get the best view. We weren't prepared to drive the 17 miles into the park over rough roads ( their words) as our insurance cover on the van does not cover unpaved roads! We got an amazing view anyway. We had intended to stay at the camping ground there but it was once again described in their own words as 'primitive' so we opted to drive further north into Utah and stay at Moab, beside Arches National park. We secured the last site at 6 o clock on a Friday night and opted to stay two nights here. The owner of the campground was South African and gave us a bit of grief about the All Blacks and how they are going to lose the World Cup again! We are opting to stay in KOA Campgrounds as much as possible as they have good facilities. Whilst the State Parks are in great locations, they tend to only have toilets and drinking water, showers only if you're lucky and with the heat and dust of the desert, a shower becomes something we both look forward to at the end of the day. After another very hot night which made sleeping difficult, we headed to Arches National Park, and stopped at the many walks as we drove through to check out the different arches made by wind and water erosion. It is another fantastic and mind-blowing sight as you drive through this park. Our lifespan is but a nanosecond when you consider the length of time it has taken to form these geological marvels. Moab is located on the Colorado River, so we have followed it North and are heading towards the Rockies. After catching up on washing and did I mention that the campground does pancake breakfasts and icecream sundae evenings???? we have headed further north to Flaming Gorge. It has been another long driving day, having covered 300+ miles, but it is cooler here and there has even been clouds in a sky and a short shower of rain as we passed through the Uinta Mountains. Tomorrow we will head into Wyoming and stay a night along the way before heading to Cody and Yellowstone National Park. Its an amazing place.
Love to all at home, Shelley and Dean.

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Photos

Arches National Park
Double Arch

Comments

[Paula]

You should have taken my camera! those photos look amazing, i wish i could have done the trek down into the grand canyon, it looks amazing from the top imagine what it would look like the other way! hopefully its not so hot as you head across the border. Love you xo