September 24: Grand Canyon to Monument Valley

Left the BLM site on Monday morning heading for the east gate of the National Park.  Too many stunning views along the way.

Desert view watchtower - amazing construction

Very close to the edge for someone that is not crazy about heights - 5,000ft down

Zoom in and read - this is the bottom of the earth crust

The river producing good farm land

Got to where I was planning to stay the night – some Forest Road near the east entrance to the park.  However, a dirt road that was so bad, there was no way I was going to put the Whale through it to get where you could camp.  Luckily the MO is to stop at the start of the road, get the bicycle off and go exploring – mainly to see that I would not go down a road where there was no turning around spot… that had happened to us before on our 2008 trip.

Decided to keep going North East towards Lee’s Ferry.  It is at the end of Glen Canyon upriver and the start of the Grand Canyon and was the first only place to cross the river back in the day.  Beautiful spot.  Most of the rafting trips through the Grand Canyon start from here.  Once you commit, you are in for 14 days – there is no getting out and the river moves at 4mph.  I would think the rapids are fun, but there must be long stretches of very very hot nothing.  Also, the policy of pack in pack out is taken to the extreme – and that means all human waste also gets to the end point…. Which does not sound like a good situation if you are going through a rapid.

From the campsite

Lots of balancing rocks.  You could see erosion in action - over the course of a few million years...

Rafters setting off for 2 weeks

See the brown Paria river and the Colorado do not mix easily

Entrance to Lee's Ferry

Navajo bridge - first major crossing of the Colorado river

A California Condor - looks like a turkey vulture, but with white wings and definitely not as large as a genuine Condor

Vermilion cliffs

In any case, after Lee’s Ferry it was on to Page, AZ on Lake Powell.  I had booked 2 nights in an RV park in town to recharge and clean everything. 

Page campground

Lake Powell

Glen Canyon dam

The town was created as a work camp for building the Glen Canyon dam – which forms Lake Powell.  In the summer, the place buzzes as there are 1000’s of house boats to rent and it must be fun to spend a week or 2 on the lake – something like Lake Kariba – without the animals…  The winters however cannot be fun.  High desert, cold, wind… What it has going for it is stunning scenery and the Horse Shoe bend in the Colorado river.

Horseshoe bend

Friday night I spent at a ‘free’ campsite on the beach at Lone Rock.  I had actually seen pictures of it, and figured out just in time that it was 10 miles away.  Was great – and lots of people hanging out there.  Best part was that I arrived there on a ‘free’ day – apparently Arizona has these odd days where all National Parks, etc. are free, and Friday was one of them – else it would have been about $45.

Magical lighting

After a 2 + hr paddle around the rock

See the Whale in the distance

Lake Powell Octupus

Deep fine sand to get to the campsite

For the first time since I had left Boston, I actually took out the Paddleski and paddled around the rock – it was further than it looked, but happy to report that neither the ski or the paddler sank.  We made it back in one piece after not being in the water for more than a year.  The view of the rock from directly below is awesome.  Unfortunately I could not get any photos from the ski, as stability was a bit of an issue…

From Page I headed to Monument Valley – another one of the must-stops along the way. Had 2 nights of dry camping and then 3 nights in an RV park to receive some Amazon packages.  The dry camping site was definitely different.  Belongs to a young guy whose Mother had set everything up, but died about a year ago.  He has a women living there to look after the place.  She lives in a tent and her boyfriend is in jail.  Sad setup, but I was less than a mile from the park entrance.

View from the dry campsite

The host site

A serious off-grid camping setup...

View from the rim of Monument Valley

My guard dog - Snoopy

Navajo huts

After my walk around the 'Mitten' in the distance.  My first non-alhocolic beer

Living the life

Sunset

The traffic jam in the valley and the left mitten I walked around

Vistas once again where awesome.  However, the ‘tours’ through the park – one for $150+ pp were totally overpriced, and there were so many cars going through the route that it looked like one big traffic jam.  I opted for the 3.6 mile hike around the Western Butte – was a great Sunday morning walk, but I am feeling it now.  For the last mile back uphill to the visitors center I had visions of a cold beer pulling me along.  Got to the visitors center only to find that they only sell non-alcoholic beers…. Nou ja – there has to be a first time.