Canyon Country, UT

We decided on the spur of the moment to go to Utah before the weather got too hot as we had planned to visit in August. So we left Cortez on a narrow 2 lane road, McElmo, which provided a 40 mph speed limit. We decided to tour some more ruins and detoured to Hovenweep. What a great idea! We walked along the canyon observing many of the ruins of the Ancient Puebloans. There are tall towers, outlines of multi-room pueblos, tumbled piles of shaped stone, small cliff dwellings, pottery sherds, and rock art that lie scattered across the canyon landscape. There was a sizable population here but noone has lived in the area for 700 years. There is a campground at the national monument which would be a nice place to stay on a cooler day (if there are no gnats) and then taking a morning hike in the canyon. More photos.

We then decided to go south to Monument Valley for lunch.

One just can't do it all if you proceed in only one direction. We enjoyed the various shades of greens in the Mormon Tea, the Utah Junipers, the sage and other desert plants in the mostly red soils. After lunch at Monument Valley's Visitor's Center we drove part way down the drive that weaves among the giant monuments of rock. We didn't go the entire way as we had other places to go. I was surprised they no longer had the campground but are building a hotel to open in 2008. The area is just over the border in Arizona and is part of the 16 million acre Navajo Reservation. No one knows when the first Navajo settled in the valley but for generations they have herded sheep and other livestock and raised crops in the area. More photos.

We stopped in Mexican Hat at one of the boat launches on the San Juan River and watched kayakers and rafters disembark. The float looked like a great idea for a hot day.

The rock formation at the right is supposed to look like a Mexican Hat.

Our next stop was to look out over the San Juan River at Goosenecks State Park. This is an amazing canyon that winds back and forth where the canyon was cut deeply by the river. Not far from there it was time to ascend the mesa. We climbed the steep gravel mesa that includes many 5 mph hairpin curves along the mostly single lane Moki Dugway. It tests my nerves each time I take that route. The photo is looking down at the road we just came from.

Once on the mesa we drove three miles down a dirt road to the Muley Point overlook where we could look across the desert floor from high above. We then had a quiet drive on a good two lane road to the Natural Bridges National Monument Campground. We got one of the 14 spots available and were pleased that the gnats were not too bad. We surely saw a lot in the 256 miles west, south, and north of Cortez.

In 1883 a prospector discovered the three magnificent bridges and in 1904 the National Geographic publicized the bridges. Theodore Roosevelt establed Natural Bridges National Monument in 1908. It sits high on Cedar Mesa, 6,500 feet above sea level. Two deep canyons were cut in sandstone formed from what was once the shore of an ancient sea.

There is a nine mile driving tour to view the natural bridges. Along the way are many pulloffs where you can hike to an overlook or even hike down to the bridges. The bridges were all created by water which distinguishes them from arches which are caused by other erosional forces. We hiked down under one of the bridges, Owachoma, which created a steep climb back up the desert terrain in the Utah sun. There is also an overlook that provides a view of one of the Ancient Indian ruins, Horse Collar Ruin, along the bottom of the canyon walls. More photos.


After enjoying the morning hikes we drove north through the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. (More photos.) We detoured through an old mining town, Hite, and down to look at Lake Powell. After we crossed the Colorado River the steep canyons included many shades of red. It is amazing that anyone ever managed to cut a road through the area. 155 miles this day found us at Capitol Reef National Park in Fruita, Utah.