Virgin River Gorge

There is a small but very unforgettable section of I-15 in the NW corner of Arizona. The warning you get before talks about strong crosswinds…but we didn’t experience that. Instead it is a stretch of road with no safe place to pull over and maintenance work going on but GORGEOUS views.

According to Wikepedia, this is one of the most expensive interstate highways ever constructed. Given the amount of rock they must have moved. I can understand that. 

From online “I-15 through the Virgin River Gorge is a scenic wonder through a 500 million-year-old gorge. Construction of I-15, which opened in 1973, included re-channeling the Virgin River 12 times. "Somehow," Arizona Highways magazine said in 1988, construction of I-15 "enhanced rather than distracted from nature's handiwork."”

BTW, it is difficult to take pictures since it must all be from the car windows (which aren’t perfectly clean) and it is so BIG. Hopefully you can see it yourself sometime.

New at Page Arizona

This area is the location for movies like Planet of the Ages (original and 2001 remake), Maverick, and The Greatest Story Ever Told along with a bunch more. I realize I obsess on movie locations. I could talk about the geological history or the human history of a site. But, technically, movie locations are history too…though relatively recent history. On a hike near Lake Powell, I am told the rocks in the 3rd picture below were the location of Mount Sinai (Sermon on the Mount) in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

We also were told that this Navaho Generating Station is closing. It is coal powered and not economical to run. The closure is causing a problem for Page in that the good paying jobs are going away so that most of what is left is tourism and that is seasonal.

The big thing we did was kayak Antelope Canyon. We’ve canoed before but never used a kayak. The deal where you have to paddle together was quite a challenge at first. Scenes from the canyon:

  

We met a couple who took a picture of us then sent it to us while we took a picture of them and sent it to them. Nice picture!

Revisiting Page Arizona

We visited Page back in 2012 and wanted to see it again. Toadstool hike is still great. After hiking on busy trails in national parks, it was more fun to visit a trail like this. There were other people here, but no continuous lines of people. Some of the views:

The opposite of Toadstool is Horseshoe Bend. We visited this before and there were other people here but NOTHING like what we experienced. The amazing part is that attendance was down as it is late in the season. They close the area when the parking lot is full. Anyhow, here are a couple pictures of the lines.

 We were still able to get a good picture of the bend, but this is not an place to sit and contemplate life.

We visited the Glen Canyon Dam before but it is a good tour plus very cool. Literally. The walls below are very cool.

And the turbines.

Navajo National Monument

By visiting Navajo National Monument, we have visited at least 140 of the national parks, monuments, seashores, etc. Wahoo!

The park has a small but interesting museum. I liked the reproduction of a family dwelling along with the pots.

Dinosaur footprint near the visitor center.

The walk to the viewpoint was great. It is around a mile out, but in good shape with several signs identifying plants and a pretty good view!

We saw quite a few cliff ruins while in Canyon de Chelly, but the Betatackin ruins here are in better shape and the overlook is closer so you can see more details.

We could have got closer to these ruins or another one called Keet Seel but the walks are guided tours at certain times and didn’t fit our schedule.

The views from Canyon de Chelly to Page were quite varied.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

The winds haven’t died down yet. There was a dust storm going on our drive to Canyon de Chelly.

Not that Chinle (the town right outside Canyon de Chelly) is small, but this was the scene we saw in town. The cool part is that three of these cattle walked on the sidewalk while the fourth kept to the right. So polite!

We’ve visited Canyon de Chelly before but wanted to see it again. I definitely remember seeing the 750’ high Spider Rock. There is a Navajo story that a goddess Spider Woman lived on top this spire.

The park has two drives along the rim of the canyon with overlooks to see the view and especially the ruins on the walls of the canyon. This one is called Junction Ruins.

Some of the park we didn’t see the first time including a few of the bigger ruins. Antelope house:

Mummy cave ruins. Cool tower!

Camping in Monument Valley

We decided to have an adventure by tent camping in Monument Valley. Within the Navajo Tribal Park, there are a few Airbnb sites within full view of multiple monuments.Living among the monuments was very special. In the picture is Brigham's Tomb, King on His Throne, Stagecoach, The Bear and Rabbit, Castle Butte, Big Chief, and Sentinel Mesa. 

It was quite an adventure! The first night was wonderful. Sunset and sunrise right outside the tent door was gorgeous.

That evening we saw a herd of wild horses pass the tent. No picture of this since it was in the dark, but a fun event to experience. However, I did see what might be the bones of a horse when taking a walk. Or it could be another animal since the Navajo area is free range for several animals.

The biggest adventure was that the wind starting up so that the second night was something else. We saw a tumbleweed form as a plant called cycloloma atriplicifolium broke off and rolled across the land.

Winds at night were 25 mph with gusts 43 mph, which the host considers average for a windstorm. There was no problem with the tent since it was designed for higher winds and well anchored but that didn’t mean it wasn’t noisy with everything moving in the wind. We can say we experienced the force of wind erosion that made these monuments! (Mitchell Butte, Gray Whiskers and Mitchell Mesa shown below.)