Day 5 Kayenta (Monument Valley) to Bryce
Canyon - 340 miles
Leaving
around 8 am we headed north towards Monument Valley but by-passed the visitor
centre and the main valley itself. We
did pull over to look back at the rock formations and take photos – in the
exact spot that Forrest Gump in the movie decided to stop running;
see for yourself:
Next for a
petrol stop was the town called Mexican Hat – the name deriving from the
strange rock formation just nearby.
We left the
main road and headed up a track with several hairpins and hard-packed gravel
for the most part up to the look out over Moki Dugway – The Valley of the Gods –
a fantastic view.
The gravel road up
Valley of the Gods 1
Valley of the Gods 2
Valley of the Gods 3
Team Photo
Brigitte and Christian
We then
began a long and fast road through upland forest in the Great Gulch area before
the road followed a huge and extensive canyon – White Canyon. We crossed over Glen Canyon and looked down
on this tributary of the dammed Lake Powell reservoir.
Glen Canyon
We then travelled northward to Hanksville passing through some strange and varied
scenery. This part of Utah seems to have
a series of several thousand feet of sandstone and shale of differing colours
(deep red, light red, pink, grey, blue-grey and white), and different
resilience to weathering. The scenery
therefore varies in terms of colour, topography and vegetation depending on
which layer of sandstone is exposed and in what orientation.
We stopped
for lunch near Torrey for what was a very tasty treat. Our route then took us through a mixture of
coniferous and aspen mountain forest. One stretch was along a ridge called 'Devil's Spine' which had some spectacular drops on each side.
We
stopped to view the ‘million dollar highway’ constructed between Escalante and
Boulder (Utah) in the 1930s as one of the many infrastructure projects
undertaken to provide employment and stimulate the economy.
Million Dollar Highway
We finally
arrived at Bryce Canyon around 6.30 pm. A long day, a degree of weariness but
the unanimous conclusion was that it had been well worth it. Seldom do you experience epic scenery on this
scale, seemingly ever changing, always surprising and holding the imagination
for hours on end.
Music Links:
Today I was
very sad to hear of the death of Rick Mayall, the British actor and comedian.
Below,
divided into 3 parts, is my favourite Young Ones Episode:
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