Trips of Utah: ‘Gobbling’, and back to the Lake City

Day Five: Goblin Valley State Park

Route 24 - on way to Goblin Valley

There was not much in plan for the final day; the only plan was to visit Goblin Valley state park and then heading back to SLC. We had covered most of the accessible points of Capitol Reef the previous evening. The drive to SLC was more than 200 miles, so we feared planning anything more than goblin valley for the day. But on the previous night, when I had grabbed a map from the hotel reception, I was looking into the places along hwy 24. There was this place called Little Wild Horse canyon very near to Goblin Valley State Park, which I found to be interesting.   It interested me because, unlike other hikes, this was a 5 mile hike through a slot canyon (You head through little wild horse canyon for around 3.5 miles and return through adjacent Bell canyon- around 1.5 miles). But as we dug into the details further, we got to know that there is a 5 mile gravel/ unpaved road to reach there. With our previous gravel road experiences at Monument valley and Valley of the Gods, we did not want to risk this on a last day. However, we kept the decision pending, and decided to inquire about it in Goblin valley visitor center.

  

Along Route 24

The day's journey started as we hit route 24 eastbound. We passed along the high red walls of the capitol reef again, as we drove further ahead of the capitol dome. As we moved forward, the topography changed, the walls with red and maroon were no more there, instead the color shifted to grey and black! It looked as if capitol reef had been put on an Eastman movie frame of the 70s!

Highway 24 turns left at Hanksville. After adding few more miles, we took the left turn towards temple mountain road and then 5 miles further, another left into Goblin Valley road (A marker  ‘valley of the goblins’ indicates this road, on otherwise deserted road). We stopped by the entry gate of the state park and got to know that, that tiny building itself has the visitor center, gift shop, restroom everything! There was only one ranger who managed the entire park. We headed further into the park, towards the valley. Our initial presumption before reaching here was that, there was a hike (at least a mile long one) to get into the valley. But as we saw it here, it was less than 100 steps downhill and we were already in the valley!  There are couple of trail-heads that start near the campsite. But for getting into the valley and walking through the valley, there is none. So you can walk anywhere in the valley!

Goblin Valley - As viewed from the viewpoint

It was fun walking through the mushroom shaped entrada sandstone structures, it appeared as if it was some 3D animated movie with full of cartoon characters around. The funky shaped rocks even though appeared small when viewed from the park’s observation point, were actually larger than human life-size. We got down into the valley from one end of the observation deck and planned to return from the other side. We later learnt that the area was earlier known as Mushroom valley, due to the resemblance of the hemi-sphere capped tower structures to the mushrooms, but later it was renamed as ‘Goblin valley’. There is almost zero vegetation around, a typical high desert, and we never spotted trees miles together.  

Goblin Valley - Alien Encounter!

The goblins of various size, somewhere starting from about 5 feet, up to 10 feet long. We stopped by near some of them for pictures. The valley is not of large area, its only few square miles. So, we could roam around anywhere and the shaded roof of the view point was visible. All we had to do was head back towards the viewpoint once  we were done dealing with the goblins.  Almost an hour after we started, we headed back towards the view point.

Goblin Valley - Garden of mushrooms!

The temperature was on its high 90s, so water bottles emptied one after the other.  Once we returned to the car, we again reevaluated our options for rest of the day. With the given remaining time, we still had the slot canyon hike option open .So, we headed to the visitor center for inquiry. Our intention was to hike for a mile or half, through the slot canyon and then return back. We didn't want to hike more than that.  The ranger at the visitor center guided with more details on the road and the trails. We learnt that there is almost a mile’s hike from the parking lot to even have a first sight of slot canyon. That would easily become a 3-4 mile hike if we had to really enjoy the slot canyon. Adding to this, was the road condition, 5 miles on a gravel road.  With more than 4 hours of drive to reach SLC, and with the clock crossing 12:30 afternoon already, we decided to skip this option.

Our next 2 options for the day was – (a) drive to the city , have a good dinner and roam around till 9 OR (b) go towards the city and drive to one of the state parks ( Antelope Island State park on the Salt Lake or ‘This is the Place’ heritage park). We chose option (a).

Goblin Valley - They are watching us!

For the next 5 hours we drove through I70 and I15 with a couple of breaks for gas, food and a short nap. I70 had the Speed limit of 75 mph, and I-15 had 80 mph! So I believe the work for Highway patrol is half reduced here.  If you are driving at 80s, you are just doing fine!  The only fear was being hit by a deer, but as there were plenty of vehicles ahead, the chances were remote. 

Speaking about the dear hits, I should say something that we learnt from the Motel owner at Canyonlands, during our late night check-in. He had told us to avoid driving on highways during nights." I know people who had come here for just couple of days, but ended up staying here for weeks because of their car being totaled due to deer hits, so better be safe than sorry" – he had warned.  There were average 5 deer hits per day, on road that linked Moab to Monument Valley. Supporting his fact, was a deer-hit counter mounted on the side of one of the highways that read 107! (I don’t know if that is per week or per month) We had some night drive plans before (like watch the sunset at one place and then drive to our stay at next destination after sunset). But we had dropped that plan and chose to drive to our next destinations before sunset, and be there for the sunset.

Salt Lake City Temple of LDS

We reached Salt Lake at around 5 PM. We planned to stop for an hour at the Temple Square. I had read about it before and was curious to see. I was looking for a free parking slot, but most of them were paid. One of the pedestrians grinned at me and said, "there are not much things for free in this city". But the funny thing was, I got a slot that was not only free, but I got paid too! There was one parking slot machine where when I pressed a button, it returned 6 quarters. We spent some time roaming around Temple square. There was this iconic Salt Lake temple, and a lot of museums and Visitor centers of Latter Day Saints (LDS). 

State Capitol dome spotted!

Most of them were boring for us. We took Photos of some of the buildings and tried entering one of them. Beehive house , was supposed to be the house of one of their cult leaders. The sisters in that center, started describing the house, we felt extremely bored as we hardly knew anything about LDS.  The place was nothing of our interest, so we ‘escaped’ from there soon. Along the road, we spotted the dome of the State Capitol and once had a thought of reaching there. But later we dropped the plan. After a stroll in the campus, we headed to the nearby mall area to spend rest of our time. A relaxing Indo-Chinese dinner at Saffron Valley East Indian Cafe in the downtown ended our most eventful trip of Utah.

Day 5 Agenda

We headed back to the airport and returned the rental car; we were just in time for boarding. With one more hour earned (MST to PST), and of course with lot of delightful memories earned, we flew back to our hometown PDX!  

Trips of Utah: A showroom for the Walls!

Day 4 : Grand Staircase National Monument

Like I had mentioned in my previous post, Highway 12 is an All American road (scenic byway) and it passes through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  My initial presumption about grand staircase was that it is a scenic point where you can actually ‘see a grand stair case’.  But later, I got to know that Grand staircase is the name of the region, primarily because of the 5 layers of cliffs in that region, which, when looked from the top (imaginary), might appear like a Grand staircase.

Anasazi Village pit house remains

This 3 million plus acre region is declared as a National Monument.  Hence, Highway 12 that passing through grand staircase boasts of covering 2 National Parks and 3 state parks and a National Monument, before it culminates at Capitol reef. 

The drive till Escalante was a typical high desert drive with barren lands all around. We passed by a crossroad to Kodachrome state park, and later bypassed Escalante Petrified forest state park.  The stretch from Escalante to Boulder included ‘the million dollar road' (nicknamed because of the effort spent to build this load) and an amazing stretch where we had cliffs on both sides of the road, overlooking a valley, and it appeared as if we were driving on a high-mounted bridge across the valley. At Boulder, we thought of taking a break from the drive and entered into Anasazi Village State park.

Day 4 Agenda

This is more of a historical museum of ruins belonging to ancestral pueblo habitation. The park has excavations of native house structures (they call it the Coombs site)  of the tribals, and a replica of Kayenta Masonry house and a pit structure house. The visitor center has an attached museum, which displays the excavation artifacts.  We spent an hour in this museum and later headed towards Capitol Reef. We spotted numerous deer on the way, and had to yield to some as well. It started pouring cats and dogs as we neared Capitol reef at around 5:20 PM and the road for next half an hour was blurry.

 Day 4 : Capitol Reef National Park

'The Castle' near the Capitol Reef Visitor Center 

Our plan was to be at Capitol Reef for sunset, but with thick clouds hovered around, there was no sign of sunlight for rest of the day, let alone sunset! With not much alternative due to pouring rain outside, we headed into the Visitor Center and took the 20 min movie on this National Park. This was our fifth National park of the trip, but till then, we hadn't taken a movie in any of the previous parks, even though every visitor center had one to offer!

Chimney Rock

To our luck, the rain had stopped when the movie completed and gave us a chance to explore some more for the day.We had collected our ‘Scenic drive’ map already, so we started the scenic drive at around 5:45 PM.  The 10 mile (one-way) scenic drive bisects the National park as it heads south. But the park area covered by this road is very less;  there are a lot of back-country dirt roads starting from this road, which further lead to ample trails and scenic beauty interior of the park.  

We first stopped at the Gifford Farmhouse, which is just a mile from the visitor center. The house was closing in next 10 mins at 6 PM for the visitors, so we first entered the farmhouse to have a glance into the antique furniture, cutlery, kitchen and the gift shop.  There were 4-5 horses in the stable just outside the farm house.  The park campsite is also very close to this historical marker. We headed further on the scenic route and the drizzle continued. 

The walls at Capitol Reef

The giant walls of the reef on both sides projected the chiseled rock sculptures hidden in them. We crossed through a rock formation called ‘Egyptian temple’, where the walls appeared like intricate decorated maroon pillars closely packed next to one another. The paved road ended a mile after that, and there were couple of unpaved roads leading further into Capitol gorge and pleasant creek. We parked in the empty parking lot, spent some time on the covered picnic tables with some snacks and turned around back on the scenic drive. 

Sunset at 'the sunset point' 

Once we reached the visitor center, we decided to head east on 24, to cover some more points in the park. We stopped near the Historic Fruita School House, a one room school that was once owned by the Mormon community that lived here.  Next point on the road, a little further ahead, was the Fremont Petroglyphs.  There are signboards that lead into the parking. Petroglyphs are the ancient drawings pecked into the canyon walls, by the Fremont tribal folk. There are a couple of binoculars kept on the boardwalk through which you can have a closer view of the drawings.  

Sunset lights on 'The Castle' - From sunset point

Next, we completed Capitol dome, a white rock structure, previously called Navajo dome resembling the US Capitol’s dome. The name 'Capitol Reef' has been derived because of the presence of such monolith domes, that resemble the US capitol. There was Hartman’s Bridge (again a Natural Rock bridge) , but we skipped it because of a mile’s hike needed to reach there. Our plan for the sunset was at the sunset point which was towards west on 24 , also our stay for that night was further west, at Bicknell.  So we turned around and headed back towards visitor center. With still an hour left for sunset, we stopped by couple of other points on our way to Panorama point. One of them was The Castle ( just across the Visitor Center). The three layered multicolored rock structure had already started to glow bright by the rays of evening sun. The rock perfectly resembled its name, it appeared like a fortress surrounding a hill, and a castle at the top of it!

Sunset at the reef

The next stop was Chimney rock, where a lone pillar like rock stood like a multi-storied building. The canyon walls behind, were equally attractive.

We headed to panorama point, an elevated area, from where miles of canyon walls are visible. We learnt from one of the boards that, the air at Capitol Reef is one of the cleanest in America and it claimed that the visibility crossed over 100 miles!  It was true, we could see distant mountains (probably of Colorado) behind the canyon walls, right from this point!  A couple of miles on an unpaved road from the panorama point leads to the parking lot of Gooseneck overlook. The sunset point is 0.3 mile hike from here. We crossed the parking lot and a few hundred feet across to have a look into the Gooseneck bend in the water down the hill.  With our past experiences, we knew that best time for viewing the sunset glow on the rocks was 30 to 45 mins before sunset. It was almost 8 PM and the sunset time was around 8:45 PM. So we hurried on the short trail towards sunset point. It was perfect time to reach there and it was as if the rocks were waiting for our arrival. As the last rays of sun struck the canyon walls, the colors became vibrant. The sky was clear now, after the rains, and the weather was pleasantly delightful. 

Sunset at the reef

The next 15 mins was spent just watching the game of lights and shadows on the cliffs and domes one after the other.   The view of ‘The castle’ particularly from this point was fabulous. The past three days had shown us completely different ways of savoring a sunset. Till then, for us, the sunset meant to be on the beaches or mountains where ‘The sun’ himself was the subject. Here, the sun hardly was a subject, but the magic of his rays were!

We headed back onto Hwy 24 westbound, to reach our motel stay at Bicknell. We had a light dinner at our room to end the penultimate day of this experience. 

Trips of Utah: It's OK to feel delighted!

Day Four: Bryce Canyon - Best 3 mile hike in the world!

As we had covered couple of viewpoints of Bryce Canyon already, our only agenda remaining for this day was the hike around the hoodoos. I know I have used the word ‘hoodoo’ couple of times already, without explaining what it is.  The closely packed pillar-like structures that form the Bryce canyon are – Hoodoos.  We like that word; it sounds like a nickname, and hence personifies the objects in front of us.  As the hike being our morning's agenda, and with most of the websites (including the park pamphlet) suggesting ‘the Sunset to Sunrise’ hike as the best one the park had to offer, we chose this 3 mile hike. This hike (as per the map) is a combination of Queen’s garden loop  and Navajo trail loop, and apparently ‘the best 3 mile hike in the world’.  In fact, some of the websites even refer the trail with this name.

Along the Queen's Garden Trail at Bryce Canyon

As we started from Panguich, our first stop was again at the Red Canyons (Highway 12). We passed through the twin Red canyon tunnels (carved out of Red canyon walls, supposed to be the gateway of scenic route 12), and reached Bryce with couple of stops on the way.

Navajo loop trail

We started the hike from the Sunrise point on the Queen’s garden trail(The parking is supposed to be crowded, as per the park website, they recommend us taking the park shuttle, but we saw there was still ample space remaining at 10 AM) . The math of 3 mile hike goes like this -  0.8 miles from Sunrise Point to Queen’s garden(downhill)  + 0.8 miles from Queens garden to Navajo loop trail (level) + 0.7 miles on Navajo trail  to Sunset point (uphill) + 0.7 miles from Sunset to Sunrise point on the rim(level, graded). The maps recommended clockwise hike on both the trails and we followed as per that.

Switch-backs along Navajo Loop trail

The rains of previous day and temperature in 70’s made it a perfect day for hiking. The hike was a relaxing one and a special one because you walk right in the middle of the hoodoos! The real mass of these giant structures came into our realization only when we started with the hike. After stopping at multiple places along the trails, under the shades of the hoodoos, we reached Queen’s garden  ( I didn't see any resemblance of the hoodoo with Queen Victoria, as claimed by the park boards). The next stretch was to reach the Navajo loop. This trail of reaching Navajo loop looks similar to any other park trail, with trees, streams around, and the presence of hoodoos in a distant background.  Once we reached the Navajo loop, then next 0.7 mile stretch was uphill. But the path in midst the hoodoos is kept zigzag, so there is not much stress experienced while climbing. We liked this stretch the most. The trail passes through a narrow slot in between the towering hoodoos (I think this part of the hoodoos is named Wall-Street), and then followed by the up-hill switch-backs , passing through the Thor’s hammer ( this hoodoo is the icon of Bryce Canyon, as is the Delicate Arch at Arches NP) , culminating at the Sunset point.  From Sunrise to Sunset point is again a short walk along the rim and this completed the ‘Best 3 mile hike’.

Hiking up the Navajo Loop Trail

It was just past noon , so we drove to Bryce Point ( the last one and the highest one of the points overlooking the Bryce Amphitheater). On the left at the Bryce point, there were window-like formations which, some of the park boards pointed out, are the initial stages of the Hoodoo formation. On both sides, you will see hoodoos, with a variety in size and color as well.

Thor's Hammer- as viewer from Sunrise point

We headed to visitor center, and unpacked our lunch boxes. We planned to reach Capitol Reef National Park by the sunset. As we had ample time left for the day , and as per the suggestion of the ranger at the visitor center, we decided to take Highway 12 road,  even though it is a little longer route. 

Trips of Utah: People, people all around!

Day Three:  Zion National Park

Our Day 3’s initial plan was to cover Glen Canyon and then complete Zion during rest of the day. But as we had covered Glen canyon the previous day, we directly headed towards Kanab that morning. Couple of hours of drive had brought us to the entrance of Zion Nation park. We were aware that there were no cars allowed in the park and all commute was through the Park shuttle. The next 5 miles towards the visitor center made the reason evident.

Day 3 Agenda

The traffic was too slow downhill and the one way peak hour crossing across the Mt Carmel Tunnel added to our wait time. But to compensate it was the first grand view of the canyon, the massive walls towering both sides, with shades of pink, isolating rest of the world from this recreational hot-spot. It took almost an hour to cross those 5 miles and to find a parking in Springdale. Springdale is a small town attached to the park, and the park administration suggests visitors to park the vehicles at this town on busy days.

The parking lot at the Zion was already full. With the temperature soaring at 90s, and the fact that rest of the trip through the park has to be commuted only through the shuttle, we had to stuff our food and ample water into our backpacks and carry it around.  Shuttles are free, but the commute by carrying all the stuff for entire day is what makes it painful. The next shuttle from Springdale dropped us at the NP entrance and from there, we boarded the park shuttle.

Zion Canyon - as viewed from Weeping Rock

Every shuttle was jam packed, as if it was heading to a distant pilgrimage! The fully occupied seats denied us the view outside and the next 30 mins of the supposedly scenic ride was spent just staring at people and backpacks. The shuttle heading towards Temple of Sinawava stops at all major locations of the park. We got down at Weeping rock point, to start with the first of our hikes.  We knew that Zion was different from rest of the parks as there is ‘less to view’ and ‘more to experience’.  It is not one of the parks where you might see a ‘wow’ spot or a crafted landscape to mesmerize. It is more of a recreational area (I still wonder why this one is a National park, and not a National recreational area) to spend time with your family/ friends.  I would rate it as a Hiker’s paradise, for its availability of wide range of hikes, may it be in distance, or in complexities.

Weeping rock was the shortest trail starting from that trail-head.  The longer trails included Hidden Canyon trail and Observation point trail. A short 10 minute hike led us into a canyon wall with dripping water drops, the concave arc enabled walking beneath the rock.  Facing against the wall, midst the dripping water, this is one of the places where you can have an unobstructed view of both the canyon walls.  Other than that, I didn't see any much of an attraction in it.

Zion - The Court of Patriarchs

Our next stop was at the Temple of Sinawava, the starting point of the riverside walk, that further led into the Zion Narrows. After a quick lunch at the trail-head, we took the 2.2 mile Riverside Walk trail. This paved trail passes along the bank of Virgin River northwards, as the gap between the walls narrows .  It seems like the water levels were record low that week, which had drew a lot of crowd here. Almost everywhere, we saw people alongside the banks.  The end of the Riverside walk trail is the starting point of The Narrows. Further ahead, the walls of the canyon came closer, creating a narrow slot canyon kind of hike for 9 miles (actually you walk on the river) and hence the name ‘The Narrows’.  We had no intentions of heading further as this was not one of our planned tasks for the day.  As I said earlier, this place appeared more like a pilgrimage on the banks of some river, with people all around, including in water.

Wave formation at Zion NP

The next trail we took was the 1.2 mile Lower emerald pool trail starting at the Zion lodge, on our way back from Temple of Sinawava.  Don’t get deceived by the name, as this place is nothing but a small muddy pond. Not much different than the weeping rock (may be summer is a wrong time, there might have been more water during spring), I hardly found it attractive. But the hike was relaxing, amid the trees and across the bridge. There are a couple of other trails as well leading to the upper pools if you want to hike further.  Our next stop was at Court of Patriarchs. Surprisingly it was a lonely place in this otherwise crowded park!  We unwrapped our food boxes and ate peacefully at the shelter as the three giants (the patriarch cliffs) gazed at us!

We didn't have further plans in this park, so we headed back above towards the canyon’s exit after picking our car parked at Springdale.  We stopped by near the Tunnel and couple of other places for pictures along our way back to route 89.We particularly loved one of the points where the ripples along the rock formed a pattern of a wave.  As we didn't have plans of visiting the actual ‘The Wave’ (Coyote butte) , this point gave us a feel of what it would look like!

At around 4, we bid adieu to our third NP in three days, and headed on Route 89 towards the fourth one hoping to be there on time for the sunset.  The cloudy weather all through the route kept us skeptical of the lights, but we kept our hopes alive.  Turning right into route 12 ( An All American road and a National scenic byway), the landscape had soon changed. The temperature was far cooler, in 80s, and the rock patterns varied. The first ones to welcome us along the route were the cliffs of Red Canyon, followed by the Red Canyon tunnels- carved arches that act as if a natural welcome gate into the Route. Turning right into Hwy 63, we were just 4 miles away from our Fourth NP of the trip, the much awaited Bryce Canyon National Park. 


Day Three: Bryce Canyon Nation Park:

The NP Pass permit had made our entry formalities a lot easier all through the trip; it took less than a minute here too. We thought Sunset point would be the best place to watch the sunset and rushed our car towards it.  Just across the parking lot, within couple of hundreds of yards,  was the Sunset point.  The clouds were still looming and hence I was into a bit of disappointment, but it did not prevail long because as I looked below the viewpoint, I realized one thing. It did not matter what weather it was. It did not matter if it was a sunset, sunrise or any given point of a day, the landscape that stood in front of me was the best one I had seen till date! A sheer masterpiece!

Sunset at Bryce amphitheater

I had seen countless photos of Bryce Canyon till then, and picturized how it would look like, but at this moment, at this point, all those imaginations missed to come even close to a reality that stood in front of my eyes. Bryce Canyon! Oh my goodness... wow!   It just took less than a minute to realize that no photographer can ever do enough justice to it, no matter what his lens specifications
 were.  I usually kept asking Vijetha what was the best moment of the trip till then.  She had liked the Valley of the gods the most, and i had liked the sunset at the Delicate Arch the most. But for both of us, all those lasted only till we reached here.

Inspiration point - Inspiration to many!

 The sun had started casting his evening lights once a while from between the clouds and the hoodoos responded within no time. The colors drastically changed in the sun-lit part of the canyon. The game continued for next 20 minutes, before a heavy downpour seized the moment from us. We had to run into a covered shelter near the parking.  We waited for some time for the rain to stop but there were no signs of it. We planned to head towards Inspiration point before the rain stopped, so that
we could gain some more viewing time after rain.

As we boarded the car, the tire gauge indicator on my dashboard glowed, indicating at least one of my tires was low on air. When I checked, I understood it was the front left one. The bumpy roads of the previous day (at Monument Valley and The Valley of the Gods) probably were the major contributors. I was not sure if tire would hold air for long. We cancelled our plan of heading towards inspiration point and were heading back towards Panguich, where we had booked our hotel. Luckily, just 2 miles ahead we saw a gas station at Bryce Town. It hardly took 10 mins to fix and within 15 mins, we were heading back towards inspiration point!

How about a game of chess with Milk and Chocolate pawns?

The rain was all over by then and the sky was clear. With still some half an hour of daylight left, we reached Inspiration point for our second look into the amphitheater. I liked the word 'amphitheater' used for the Bryce Canyon. The hoodoos appear like people gathered on an amphitheater stadium to watching an eveing show. But in this case, the hoodoos themselves were 'The evening show'!  The Inspiration point overlook has three different levels, and the hoodoos appear distant than from the Sunset point, but no less attractive! 

On our way back, we stopped at the town of Bryce, to see a couple of old fashioned shopping center by the road, that consisted of couple of gift shops. We spent rest of the evening here before it got dark, and then headed towards Panguich.  The eagerness for next day’s hike into the Bryce Canyon reached its ecstasy.  With a stop for dinner at a local pizza restaurant, we reached our room in Panguich by 10 PM that night.

Trips of Utah: Statues and Monuments!

Day Two: Statues and Monuments!

With the previous day being more tiresome than we expected, we were just hoping that rest of the trip wouldn't be so. The hope materialized and the weather didn't bother us as much as it did on the first day! The plan for Day two was more of a drive with lesser hikes. We planned to cover Valley of the Gods and the Monument Valley before crossing the border and heading towards Page AZ. 

Waking up late had erased most of our previous day’s tiredness. Heading south in 191, we crossed small town Blanding, and continued into route 163 soon after crossing Bluff. After 70 miles from Monticello and after a drive of an hour and a half, we were at the signboard on 163 , pointing towards an unpaved road at the right, which read ‘Valley of the Gods Road’.

Valley of the Gods 

This is an 18 mile stretch of unpaved bumpy road connecting 163 to 261 (I think the route name is FR 242, but it is nowhere written). We had earlier made sure that this was not a four wheel drive road, so we were bold enough to step into it. But there were signboards stating that the road is un-passable when wet. So people coming here in

winter might have to check for road conditions or might have to get a four wheel drive.

Not even a mile on the road, and the views of tall statue-like rocks unfolded one after another.  We first stopped by the ‘Seven Sailors’ and further ahead we took a glance of Setting Hen Butte and the Battleship rock(There are no signboards after entering the road, we just got to know these names from a map in the internet). The peace in this valley was enchanting. Completely invisible from the main roads, you will reward yourself a moment of loneliness and peace as you cross through the valley. There were no other vehicles on the unpaved gravel road, which gave us the advantage of stopping on the road wherever needed! 

Along the 'Valley of the Gods' road

Structures unfolding one after the other along the road made us feel like being in a museum of mammoth work-pieces of modern art. The plain land ensured unobstructed views of distant monuments, some of them even a mile apart.

We couldn't drive more than 20 mph because when I tried to do so, I heard the road bang a couple of times into my car underneath. There are one or two slopes in the otherwise level road. For us, this was equally good compared to the Monument valley (we are going to head there next),in fact,Vijetha liked this one more than the Monument Valley.We reached the highway 261, soon after crossing the 'Valley of the Gods Bed & Breakfast' (the lone building on the entire stretch),  almost an hour of drive on the unpaved road. Turning right at this junction would take you towards Natural Bridges National Monument( just in case, if you are interested), but you should keep in mind that to reach there, you would have to cross Moki Dugway, one of the most dangerous roads in America!. This was the very reason we had skipped Natural Bridges, and a round about would cost us an extra day.

Turning left onto 261 takes you towards Mexican Hat. 

Goosenecks Point overlook

Our car raced through the road as we headed towards Goosenecks State Park, a 3.6 mile deviation from an intersection further down on 261. We expected a visitor center here as it was a state park, but there is nothing else here but a view point and a restroom. 

Peeping down the overlook 1000 feet beneath, we saw 4 folds of unwinding water carving terraced zigzag bends, creating a peculiar yet beautiful landscape.   The display board provided more details of the sight that we were viewing.  The river flowing beneath was called San Juan, and the canyon created is supposed to be one of the finest entrenched meanders in the world.  It is always curious to understand the geology behind such formations, in this case, the San Juan river became entrenched, when the entire Colorado plateau was slowly uplifted. It seems the river further joins Lake Powell. We tried capturing all the folds of water in a single frame, but couldn't find a point from where it could be done. We ended up taking 3-4 shots.

 

Route 163 - On the way to Monument Valley

Our next destination was Monument Valley which is 25 miles from here, on 163.   On the way, we passed through Mexican Hat, a stand-alone structure visible from the main road 163. As we continued towards the Monument valley on 163, a trailer of what we are going to see next had already begun.  The straight, seemingly endless road appeared to culminate right at steps of the mighty monuments. Turning left at the Monument valley road, near the welcome center, we realized that we were ahead of our planned schedule. Within couple of miles, we were at the Navajo Tribal park visitor center. As we stepped into the viewing deck, a view as spectacular as never before, stood in front of us.  Right in front of the visitor center, stood three mighty Mesas, a postcard picture of the Monument Valley, a view we were longing to see. Towards right, down along the canyon, was a thin line of road, heading towards numerous similar rock structures. We had our lunch just outside the visitor center, digesting less of food but more of the view!

Monument Valley - View from the visitor center

Unlike the National parks, Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribe owned park, and the differences were definitely perceptible. The visitor center has employed many of the local Navajo community. The road leading into the valley ( a 17 mile unpaved dirt road) was inviting us and we decided to drive along it. With enough experience of a dirt road at the Valley of Gods, we considered this one to be a similar one. But the road was much worse than we thought.

 Heading a little more than a mile in the road, we realized that we were not even looking through our windows for the views but were busy escaping the pot holes.The bumpy ride that started just in front of the Mitten Buttes, continued till Elephant Butte point, where we decided to head back after shooting a dozen of pictures of the distance sequence of the monuments. I personally felt the view from the Visitor center was much more rewarding, than the view down in the valley (Possible that the views at Valley of the Gods had saturated my senses ). But of course, if you have an SUV or a four wheel, don't limit yourself, go ahead!  But if your plan is to drive a mile or 2, then better not do that, because, the views that you see after crossing a couple of miles is not much different than what you had seen from the visitor center.

Monument Valley - On the Valley road

When we reached back the visitor center, I inquired one of the Navajo Tour bus drivers about the trips that they conduct. He told that they had different packages (1.5 hour, 2.5 hour packages etc). When inquired about the prices, the driver turned towards the owner, asking him to respond. He responded saying it starts at $100 per person. He told that they would take us back-country where there is some more varieties of rock formations and also take us into some of the local Navajo communities.And that would be $200 ! At this moment, I predicted that one of the reasons for the horrible conditions of the roads is because these tourist operators wanted it that way so that less people take their personal vehicles!   How I wished this place to be a national park!  I would have cruised it across within 30 mins.

The Valley and The Road

Back in the Visitor Center, we browsed through some of the old photographs of the valley; it was surprising to realize that these tribal’s even do vegetation in this long forbidden desert! As we left the valley, I was still wondering how this place was so different from the rest of the Utah Parks, with respect to culture, the aesthetic outlook and the people. The bus driver and the owner combo and they way they marketed their tour resembled a typical duo at one of the many tourist spots in India!

We headed towards Page AZ at around 4 PM, it was a couple of hours of drive from here. Our main attraction at Page was undoubtedly the Horseshoe Bend. We had skipped it during our last visit to Page, an year back. We had been there to visit the Antelope canyons, but somehow we had missed this place. Now that we were ahead of the schedule, we planned to reach Page by 6 PM, which would give us enough time to cover it later that evening.

As we drove pass the UT-AZ border, scattered thunderstorms spilled some rain and to some extent cooled the outside temperature. We first headed towards our Hotel to check-in (plus, most of the maps online had revealed that US 89 N, the road that led to Horseshoe Bend trail-head , was closed due to landslide. So we wanted to confirm with someone in town on the alternative routes).  The receptionist guided us well with a map and confirmed that 89 N was open till the trail-head start point.  She also informed about couple of good places to visit for the evening near Glen Canyon dam. This boosted of enthu; within next 15 mins , our car was at the Horseshoe bend trail-head parking.

Horseshoe Bend - Page AZ

 The hike to the viewpoint was a 1.5 mile round trip, most of it was on the red sands which was still wet because of the downpour an hour back. The walk was almost like walking on the beach sands.  The place was crowded, but not the extent of denying any of the views of the bend. This indeed was a surprise spot. The late evening light colored Navajo Sandstone Rock and the greenish blue water beneath making a 270 degree bend around it, was a scene of a lifetime!  The after-rain weather was perfect, added with a cool breeze scripted a pleasant, beautiful summer evening.

Our another advantage for the day was the time gain. We had MST all through Utah and AZ(even though in MST), doesn't follow Daylight Savings. So we gained an extra hour at Page and were still not done for the day yet! We headed towards Glen Canyon Dam, which was just a couple of miles away.

A view just across Glen Canyon Dam

Driving on US 89, we reached Glen canyon dam. There was a bridge to cross over it. We strolled around the bridge to have the view of the canyon, the dam and its waters. The walls of the canyon were dual colored,  most of the top portion were orange and the belly belt that touched the waters was grayish pink. We drove further ahead and took a deviation along the 5.5 mile Lakeshore drive towards Wahweap Marina, a part of Glen Canyon National recreation area.

As we had a National Parks pass, this was one free excursion for us!  The Wahweap Bay was crowded with jet boats and house boats, the very point for which, I thought, it has been identified as a recreational area. The sun was setting, and there were no good points for viewing sunset here. If planned well, we could have been there at the Horseshoed Bend for the sunset.

Day 2 Agenda

Heading back to Page, we stopped by at couple of places to have a view of the Dam and the bridge, which completed our eventful second day of the trip. The dinner at Downtown Page was delicious.  Later at the hotel, as I peeped through the balcony of our room, the Glenn canyon and the lights at the Dam were still visible!

 I became a fan of this town, for the second time, again!

Trips of Utah: Come beneath the rocks and pass through!

Day one (continued):  Arches National Park, UT

Soon after our lunch at the Canyon-lands, we headed towards 191, to our next destination for the day - Arches National Park. We reached at around 3:00 PM, which left us around 6 hours till the sunset. The Sunset hike till the Delicate Arch was pre-planned, so we first confirmed at the visitor center what the best time was to be at delicate arch that evening. The ranger suggested to be there at around 8:15 PM, that is half an hour before sunset. An hour of hike (1.5 mile one way, uphill) would give us time till 7:15 PM for covering rest of the park. We planned rest of our hours to fit into this.

The heat was now almost nearing 3 digits which made us clear a quart of water every half an hour.The first stretch from the visitor center into the park is uphill. With the crowded vehicles, it takes half an hour get into the first viewpoint! So don't be surprised if the park map shows you an hour to 2 hour drive towards every point in the park from the Visitor Center. It is this steep uphill drive adding up hours to most of it. The drive time within the parks points are within half an hour drive.

The Windows Loop Trail

On our way towards the Windows section, we stopped by for a snap at Courthouse tower point and the balanced rock.  Turning right in the first intersection of the park, we headed towards the Windows. The first one along a mile long Windows trail loop is the North Window, but the turret arch was also at a visible distance at right. I quickly crossed over the North Window hoping to take a ‘Window inside a Window’ shot, but as I headed further, I realized it was a tough task for me. Heading from the North window, along the trail, we reached South Window, pretty similar in structure to the North one. Nice place to have a break, as there are shadows of rocks that might help you  relax a bit. 

The loop further led us near the Turret Arch, from where we could see both North and South Windows at one glance.

Through North Window

Just across the parking lot was a short quarter mile hike towards Double Arch.  The place under the Arch was surprisingly cooler and the breeze tempted us to rest there longer.The park boards provided an insight into its formation. It was a pool of water on the rock, that gradually deepened over time, and carved the left and right arches, forming a 3 hole rock formation!

Later, we headed further in the Park road, towards the fiery furnace, stopping by at a couple of points.We gazed the white stripes along the red rocks of fiery furnace, as we read the nearby signboard that provided more details on the formations. We learnt that the red color of the rock is because of the rich iron content in it, and the white stripes are the spots where water had bleached the rock and removed the iron content.  ''To be or not to be' - I thought.  It is a combination of 'presence' and 'absence' that was 'present' right in front of us, and of course, needless to say, it was a pleasant present! Unlike its name Fiery furnace (that brings up a picture of some red-hot burning thing into our mind) , this place is comparatively cooler, probably because of the breeze.

 

Double Arch

As we were nearing our 7:15 PM deadline, we skipped rest of the park road ahead and headed towards the delicate arch road. At the dead end of the Wolf Ranch road, a short hike leads to a viewpoint where we could have a distant glance of the delicate arch. As I saw it, I realized that the size was perfectly fitting the replica imprinted on our car’s Utah Number plate! Our next hour was dedicated to reaching towards it before the sun could finish casting his magic onto it.

The hike towards Delicate Arch starts at the Wolfe Ranch parking lot, which was jam packed when we reached there.  We rushed our car into a vacant RV parking lot as most other cars did, and started the 1.5 mile hike. The hike was moderately strenuous, but the heat made us take more than couple of stops before we made it into the top.  The hike was almost uphill for most of the part.  There were people returning back, which made us skeptical if we were late. When we reached atop, we were well ahead of time, but the show of the sun had already begun!  Standing right in front of the Delicate Arch, the mascot of Utah, I was just realizing the actual size of it!  

Delicate Arch at Sunset!

People posing in front of it appeared so tiny that their presence was almost negated.  There were hundreds of photographers all along the slope surface leading to the Arch, capturing the evening colors.  I roamed around with the camera like one crazy nut, trying out all possible options in it. But as the sun tilted his angle more, the lens of my naked eye soon overtook my 55-250mm lens and what followed after were moments of bliss. 

Sunset colors on the rocks

Sunset at the delicate arch was one of our most awaited moments of the trip, and here we were, enjoying every bit if it. Right from the day we planned, we had a dilemma on whether to choose Mesa Arch at Canyonlands for the sunset or the delicate arch. I still don’t know which one is better, but I know for sure both are rewarding!

Heading down back in the trail ended our tiresome first day of the trip at the twin parks. It took not more than half an hour to hike back, as it was a steady continuous slope. But getting out of the park (reaching Visitor Center), on the park road was tiresome due to huge traffic. Moving at 15 mph, it took half an hour to reach route 191.

It was 9:30 PM, when we stopped by a gas station at Moab. The 4th of July fireworks were decorating the skies all around us.  

We drove towards Monticello for the next one hour, where we lodged for the night.