We had our day planned as a loop tour west of our campground.
We went down to route 95 and headed west
toward
Natural Bridges National Monument.
There’s a loop road around a canyon that has lots of rocks and some
“bridges” that the river has created.
Most can be seen with a short hike to a viewpoint.
We made one slightly longer hike to see more
Anasazi ruins across a canyon.
From there we headed down route 261, which was just flat
land with sagebrush for a long way.
We
took a right onto a dirt road leading to
Muley Point.
The end of this road just goes out onto white
rocks that have steep drop-offs, and a view across the plateau all the way to
Monument Valley.
We only saw two other
cars while we were there.
This was a
great spot to eat lunch!
We went back to the highway which at this point
started down what’s called “
Moki Dugway”, a
gravel road with a 10.5% grade and extreme switchbacks.
It’s the one we were afraid to go up a few
days ago, but the lady in the visitor center said that it was built for trucks
when they were mining uranium here, and it’s wide enough to pass and is kept
graded.
We even passed a motorhome which
was coming up!
At the bottom of that, we took another dirt road we had been
afraid to try earlier…the one that goes through the
Valley of the Gods.
It’s 17 miles of red dirt, but it’s not too
bumpy and goes by amazing rock formations.
The road has lots of small hills and washes, and some of the uphill
climbs are so steep that you just to have faith that there’s a road at the
top!
I started beeping my horn since I
couldn’t tell if someone was on the other side.
This took us about an hour, since I had to stop and take lots of
pictures!
When we got back on highway 163, we went back to see
Goosenecks State Park again since the wind was so bad when we were there
earlier.
And this time, I had figured
out how to take a panoramic picture with my iPhone.
The loops in the river are too wide to pick
up in a regular photograph.
We headed back on 163 and 191 to our campground.
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| Cedar waxwing at our campground |
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| Sipapu Bridge |
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| This tree has a rough life! |
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| Anasazi ruin |
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| Kachina Bridge |
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Watch out for ravens!
They eat windshield wipers! |
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| Lizards were everywhere! |
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| Owachomo Bridge |
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| Warning for Moki Dugway |
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| View from Muley Point |
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| You can drive or walk right to the edge! |
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| No railings |
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| Monument Valley on the horizon |
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| That's as far as our car got to the edge! |
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| Monument Valley with my zoom lens |
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| Roller coaster road |
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| Looking down before we start the decline |
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| Someone brought a motorhome up this road! |
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| You can see the grade of the road here! |
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| Switchbacks |
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| Road in the Valley of the Gods |
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| Another roller coaster ride! |
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| Looks like that rock will come down any minute! |
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Goosenecks State Park
Two loops of the san Juan River |
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| Can't get it all in one picture! |
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Here's my panorama.
Be sure you click on it to see it bigger. |
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| Here's where we are on the GPS. |
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Zig zag rocks outside Mexican Hat.
Can you see the lady sunbather in the design? |
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| Navajo Twin Rocks in Bluff, UT |
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Look at their established date!
I guess they're going back to the Anasazi times! |
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