Adventure Travel Photography Blog
All through the night at Lake Powell, VANilla jiggled like a bounce house full of ten year olds. Sand sprayed VANilla so hard, at times, the sound of it made me wonder if it was raining. We found no relief from the wind this morning as we headed southeast to Natural Bridges National Monument.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
We started our morning drive to Capitol Reef National Park, a park we quickly passed through at the beginning of the week while traveling to Bryce. I recalled seeing a trail to Chimney Rock, so I stopped there on the way into the park and started the trek that ascended 240 feet in the first quarter mile. It was already relatively late in the morning and a somewhat warm day, so after reaching the plateau for a panoramic view, I returned to VANilla to rescue my dog Petey instead of continuing on the 3.5 mile journey.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
After taking advantage of free wi-fi at the local Starbucks, we began the last portion of our loop drive around Zion National Park. Highway 14 winds its way between high canyon walls streaked in delicate cascades, beneath sandstone cliffs, along stream filled meadows, past icy blue lakes, and over a 9,000 foot pass blanketed in snow covered lava.
We made a variety of stops along the way to simply take in the views. A trucker, hauling a huge fork-lift, that had ignored the warning sign for semis to use a different route, helped influence some of my stops as I repeatedly caught up to him and the line of cars trailing him at half the posted speed limit.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I joined civilization, applied makeup for the first time in six weeks, and found a local sports bar to watch the Mavs game. Here I met Brian from Idaho. He has been on a six week road trip and has spent much of his time near Zion enjoying warm weather as it is mud season in his home town. What I was quite impressed with was his ability to find some land about twelve miles outside of town with a sign posted, “Use By Donation”.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
As I mentioned yesterday, I arrived relatively early to the Visitor Center in Zion National Park, parked VANilla under a shady tree, and boarded the shuttle for a 30 minute ride to the Grotto. From the Grotto, I took the mile long, rocky Kayenta Trail along the cliff’s edge overlooking the Virgin River lined in cottonwoods. As I rounded the bend, in the distance a tall cascade of water tumbled from the cliff side in the morning sunlight. The waterfall reflected every color of the rainbow…what a pleasant surprise! It was hard to contain my eagerness to reach the Upper and Lower Emerald Pool Trail.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Indian territory in Arizona recognizes daylight savings, unlike the state, so I ended up losing an hour and got a bit of a late start this morning. VANilla carted us about 60 miles through the Monument Valley area to Navajo National Monument past an interesting pair of buttes called Elephant Feet. As one would guess, these sandstone monuments look like wrinkled, leathery elephant feet.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!